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Italy 2022: Tagliacreddi - Pt. 3 Mirabilandia

Disclaimer: Apologies for the lack of photos and the rambl-y nature of this one. I was a bit pushed for time!

Well, it’s been 3 months and the itch is beginning to grow; a summer return to the US is on the cards but a little adrenaline fuelled scratch is needed in the meantime. Ahh **** it, how about another playthrough of Europe again.

Before I choose my trip to Germany, Spain or any of the lands between; price needs to be taken into consideration. I had to sell a kidney for Florida in January and the other one is on the market for our June US road trip, so we need to keep it cheap.

After running all the simulations Italy came out as our most cost-effective option, finding some absurdly low-cost flights from Stansted to Verona. Italy’s a weird one coaster-wise isn’t it. Like the Milky Way in the tin of Celebrations, it’s not the worst European destination for parks but it does seem somewhat forgotten about. I can count on two fingers the parks that I consider “bucket-list” and even then, the coaster selection can’t really be considered world-beating; nevertheless, I was quite excited to get away for some quality creds, cuisine and everything in between.

Friday 8th April 2022

Urgh, Stansted Airport sucks doesn’t it. Catching the 6:10am flight to Verona was never going to be a fun one (2:30am wake up… yay); but it seemed that the undead hordes had been summoned to fill the place out whilst we were there. Kids crying, crowed pathways and limited options for food led to a very unpleasant start to the day; reminding us exactly why we were so ready to get out of the UK for something at a slightly different pace and boy did we get it. From the moment we touched down in Italy there was a sense of calm (albeit an extremely tired calm). We whisked through passport control into a sparse arrivals hall, had possibly the most pain free car rental experience of my travel career and basked in the lovely warmth of the Italian sunshine.

A couple hours later after waiting/snoozing in our little Fiat 500 for our other friend @Coop to arrive, we were on our way to Lake Garda and the first park of the trip. Movieland: The Hollywood Park!

Movieland: The Hollywood Park!

After somewhat ceremoniously changing from warm British-wear to shorts and a t-shirt so that we could fully embrace the gorgeous Italian sun (oh yeah, now the holiday is properly underway); we left the deserted car park to enter the deserted park itself. Usually, I prefer a light crowd for a park day, enough people to provide an atmosphere but not so many that I have to queue for anything more than 20 minutes; the complete vacancy of this park though (I’m talking less than 80 people) was a godsend for our weary bodies. Parkwide music compensated for atmosphere, everything was a walk-on and more often than not we were the only ones on an attraction, meaning that we could go at our own leisurely pace.

This was possibly the “blindest” I’ve ever been going into a park. I knew that they had an Intamin 1st generation drop tower and a Vekoma not-so-giant inverted boomerang, but the rest of the park remained a mystery; almost to the point where I feel like putting this whole section of the TR under a spoiler tag because I really think going in blind is the way to do it. The whole place is just bizarre.

As you enter you are immediately drawn to Hollywood Tower, the aforementioned Intamin 1st generation drop tower, looming menacingly over the midway like a massive steel Victorian torture device. Even the cars look like something Jigsaw would be proud of. The entrance however remains somewhat hidden and small, leading us to miss it and instead opt for the ride next door as our first of the day. Magma 2.0.

Whilst this was all new to @Coop and me; @Serena had been here before and the look on her face when I opted to sit on the outside edge of the back row was one that gave me some slight nerves, it was somewhere between “I know something you don’t know” and “I wouldn’t have done that if I were you”. Either way, it had me bracing myself for the ride ahead and I was right too. It was ****ing bonkers. To start with, this is no automated bus tour, no siree. The bus driver was absolutely hauling around the pothole-ridden road sections giving crazy ejector airtime and sliding about as we flew around "unrestrained" on the bench at the back, with nothing more than a bar to hold onto. Next, there are several sections where the wheels get somewhat submerged in water as you get absolutely drenched by fountains, water jets, and more. Honestly sitting on the edge makes you target number 1 for this and if you think you’ll get away from it dry, think again. There are earthquake simulations, fire effects and a mental ending which I won’t spoil, but holy **** this ride is insane. If you go to Movieland it’s an absolute must-do… just don’t sit on the edge and grip on tight.

After a thorough soaking courtesy of Magma 2.0 it was time for Hollywood Tower. I have mixed emotions on this one. The eerie clunky motions, highly exposed restraint and ripping of the Twilight Zone sound bite (sure they paid for the rights to that one 😉) do a great job of building suspense. I love the way the T on Hollywood Tower rotates just as you’re about to drop and the gorgeous airtime that you get on the way down… what I don’t like is sliding onto your back at force, all the blood surging viciously to your head and then whilst in that somewhat sensitive state; lurching ungracefully back into the station. It wasn’t enough to put me off having 5 rides or so, but the headache inducing nature of this mechanical beast meant that rides needed to be limited. Definitely difficult to whore haha. This ride did lead to one of my favourite moments of the trip though. @Serena made it very clear beforehand how terrified she was of Hollywood Tower and sat out on the first go. Seeing the smiles on our faces after the first ride though were too much; proclaiming “**** it!” and came on with us for our second ride. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her go that quiet or look quite that nervous on anything before; so it was such a joy when she came off all smiles knowing that she’d felled the enemy that was giving her so much anxiety. Very proud moment 😊

Only two rides in and we were already due a break; Intamin 1st Gen drop towers and sleep deprivation do not make for a happy couple. So we got some food and some beer (which comes 3 free rides on the mechanical bull, not sure who in marketing worked that one out; but they’re either a genius or insane haha) before heading to the next weird attraction.

Up next was Pangea, another attraction that shouldn’t realistically exist. Situated right next to the Vekoma boomerang thing; it was basically an off-road driving attraction where you yourself drive the jeep. Yep, you heard that right folks, no license needed here! They just chuck you into a vehicle loaded with sensors, limited to about 10 miles an hour and set you off. Definitely many things that could have gone wrong with this one. Naturally we selected the one license-free person in our party to drive, which was quite entertaining in itself. Serena made it very clear she wanted to drive, then immediately after seeing the first very steep section of road (straight out of the station) exclaimed “WHAT!? I can’t go down there!”… she did though haha. To complement to steep and un-vehicle friendly terrain, the sides of the road were also littered with Dino animatronics and there is a fun little narrative playing over the car radio. It wasn’t without it’s negatives though; continuous high revs and the fact the thing is ****ing petrol/diesel powered led to us feeling pretty lightheaded afterward. The jeep also got disgustingly hot and if you weren’t careful, you could easily burn your leg if you touched the chassis near the engine. We did also have to be rescued by a man on a dirtbike when the sensors stopped us from continuing at one point, but honestly it just baffled me that a park would think this is a good idea. Why would you build a self-driving attraction for non-drivers? Why would you use petrol? The cost vs capacity ratio is severely off and I absolutely dread to think of what it would be like on a busy day. To avoid being poisoned by the fumes any longer we opted against going back on, but honestly if it was done with electrics that could have been worth a re-ride. As with many things at Movieland you’re not going to get something like that at any other park.

Serena already had it so she sat out, but Coop and myself had a whirl on the boomerang. I’d not done an inverted one and the SLC restraints filled me with some dread upon boarding; but it wasn’t that bad at all and pretty smooth. Just a +1 but it left me with no regret so that’s a win as far as I’m concerned. Plus, we got to face each other throughout the ride which is pretty fun too.

Heading back into the park from that weird side section with Pangea and the coaster, we next tackled their year-round horror maze; Holmes Hotel. The website proudly proclaims this is “Not suitable for people who are easily impressed” and I think that’s a very fair claim to make. It was fantastic. From the interior of the queue, down to the creepy bell hop outfits, the start was a straight lift off the Tower of Terror queue, but they honestly did it really well and I think it works brilliantly for an angle on a horror maze. Once inside the maze itself you go through a massive variety of amazing sets; pitch black corridors and encounter loads of actors; frankly this is one of the best horror mazes I’ve ever done. It’s really long and keeps you in that zone of suspense for what feels like eternity. It’s an uncomfortable amount of time to be that “on-edge” but my god does it make the scares effective. Lucky enough to be at the back of our party of three, I was constantly looking over my shoulder down through pitch blackness, often catching sounds or glimpses of an actor pursuing me from the shadows. 10/10 on the creep factor! It finished with an ending that I don’t want to spoil, but it’s never one that I’ve seen before and ramped up the terror to an unprecedented level. Not for the faint of heart at all, but essential for anyone that loves a good scare!

The sunny outside came as a welcome relief and something a bit more palatable was needed; so we had a go on the shot tower before returning to the less conventional offerings of Movieland. It’s next to a big rocket, which adds nicely to the other impressive theming at the park, but in short; shot tower goes up. Ejector airtime goes pop. Gorgeous views of Lake Garda go “wooow”. Shot tower comes down. One ride was enough, but if I wasn’t flagging quite so hard at this point I’d have happily had another. The drop tower next door is still more fun.

It’s right next to the mechanical bull, so we used our tokens to take it in turns disgracing ourselves. Even getting on the thing was a clumsy and hilarious affair; really glad that we got to have a go even if it lasted only a few seconds! @Coop was the undisputed winner of that particular trial, even though I could have had another go at beating him; I decided to put those foolish ambitions to rest and continued on to the last anticipated attractions; U571 and Kitt Superjet. (Even though it’s out of order, I’m going to save U571 for the end as even though I do want to talk about it; I don’t want to sour the rest of my report. So, I’ll talk about Kitt first.)

Wowee; what an attraction! Kitt Superjet was absolutely one of the best rides of the trip and undoubtably the best ride at Movieland for me. When, if ever, have you needed to wear a life vest for an attraction at a theme park? Nope, I can’t think of one either. Well, this is exactly how the Kitt Superjet experience starts. You enter the queue, selecting your lifejacket and then heading into a little waiting area in front of two speedboats casually bobbing in the water. In this area videos of David Hasselhoff play in Italian to get you in the Kitt Superjet frame of mind; god I love it for its cheesiness. You then proceed to the speedboat where you get driven round the stunt arena lake at breakneck speeds, skimming, drifting and doing donuts in the process. It’s ****ing brilliant! So exhilarating! All this happens whilst narrowly avoiding the sets in place for the show too which makes for some truly epic near misses. I adored this attraction and would undoubtedly be an upcharge anywhere else… but then it’s not the only thing that would be an upcharge anywhere else. When we were discussing the attractions in the park and actually started listing them, they have a lot of attractions of that nature. A year-round horror maze with loads of actors, a driving attraction that uses petrol, a speedboat ride round the lake used for the stunt show and a complementary mechanical bull ride with everything bought at a food stall are all included in the price of admission. In that respect Movieland is kind of the “Upcharge Land” of parks. So bizarre!

Anyway, I now need to talk about U571. It had been hyped up for us considerably by Serena. Stories of it being the wettest attraction she had ever been on and it requiring some questionably dangerous activities led me to somewhat dread it, but the intrigue was immense. There had been a couple of changes though since Serena’s last visit; including one that was particularly difficult to ignore… it had gone a bit… racist. The entrance was now adorned in Nazi imagery. 😬 Iron crosses, Nazi eagles, red, black and white banners where prominently featured; really putting into question whether it was even right to go in. Why they felt the need to do this is beyond me. Maybe there’s an anti-Nazi storyline that wasn’t picked up on through lack of translation, but it didn’t feel like it at any point. This got worse when you enter the main submarine hanger to see GIANT Nazi banners inside. It was honestly one swastika short of being called Nazi Sub: The Ride. You enter the submarine and go the length of it to the end, where you sit on benches and a simulated submarine ride whilst under attack commences. The ride attendant pulls some levers whilst pipes burst around you, but aside from a couple of rogue jets this wasn’t as wet as claimed. The sub levels out, triumphant music plays and you leave. With regards to the ride system itself Serena did say that the wetness and interactivity had been heavily scaled back, with the expected reason being Covid. Whilst that was underwhelming though, the whole experience had been really tarnished for me by the use of the imagery. For something that looks as impressive as a full-size submarine and the whole set; it’s a real shame that it’s been themed how it has. I never want to feel like I’ve saved a Nazi Submarine on a ride. It’s not one I’d come back to.

So that was Movieland! There are also shows and some simulator-esque dark rides, but I wanted to just cover the main things that left an impression on me. It’s a shame to end on such a sour note, but I honestly don’t know how else to take it. Theming on U571 aside I had an absolute blast and it was so nice to experience loads of attractions that are unique to Movieland. If you can look past that one particular attraction and the fact it’s most likely run by the Italian Mafia as a front, you’ll have a fantastic time here. All I’d say is that you don’t want to get caught on a busy day and apply a bit of common sense when it comes to some of the rowdier attractions!

Finally, to give a little nod to the rest of the evening; we checked into our accommodation for the night then went for beautiful meal on Lake Garda whilst watching the sun set. It’s not often this hobby takes me somewhere that I would want to visit without parks being nearby; but Lake Garda is one of the most stunning locations I’ve ever seen and existing there for the night with two people I love making memories with so much was pure bliss. A great way to polish off a long an exhausting day.

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Serena

Miss CoasterForce 2016
Staff member
Social Media Team
Lovely report so far!

For those wondering how cheap our flights were, they cost £25 for a return. £10 out, £15 back. Amazing. I'll put up with Stansted for those prices.

MovieLand has certainly toned down the copyright infringement. On my previous visit, there was a parade with Harry Potter, Mickey Mouse, Lara Croft...so many characters! And all the rides were themed to movies back then.

It was kinda fun seeing how they've changed this now. Termintor is now 'Android', Rambo is now 'Action' for example. Some of the rides have been toned down too, like U571 used to practically DROWN you. But for what it lacks in wetness, it now has in dubious theming :/

I'm glad I braved the Intamin First Gen Drop tower. It makes lots of terrifying clunky noises, but the actual drop is good. Hated the bit on your back though, with all the blood rushing to my head. It's also got to be one of the most watchable rides out there. I could sit and watch those funny little carts slide out at the top like post coming through the letterbox, then plummeting down that giant L shape structure all day.

All in all, it's still one of the weirdest parks in Europe - which in my books, is only ever a good thing ❤
 
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Saturday 9th April 2022

Sometimes it's the small things in life that make things just a bit sweeter; getting free soup with a meal out, seeing multiple dogs throughout your day, getting up after a long sleep with only a 4-minute drive to the next park; oh yeah, that's the stuff isn't it 😊 Well luckily for us, those were all features of our second day in Italy!

Today was Gardaland and just so happened to be the opening day for their brand new Jumanji themed Dark Ride. This was completely unplanned by us, but it fit our trip ever so sweetly.

Gardaland

Fearing high crowd levels and Merlin annual pass faff we got there early, rocking up to the entrance about 30 mins before park opening. Spring-loaded and ready to fly through the gates for Jumanji - The Adventure, we missed the opening ceremony with characters happening directly above us (although we did still get a nice sprinkle of confetti). There was a rather large crowd behind us, but disaster struck when they told us we needed to use a different entrance to get in free with the Merlin pass 🤦‍♂️ We left the very front as the crowds we'd tried to avoid poured into the park and went to the alternate (much nicer) entrance on the right. Fortunately, it didn't take long to get through and before we knew it we were heading down the most efficient route to Jumanji with an optimistic lack of people following behind.

Alas, all that rushing was not warranted; thwarted by a sign indicating that half of the park closed till 11am (it was also spitefully blocking off the nearest loos, something that I very much did not appreciate 😅). Oh well, I suppose we might as well be good enthusiasts then and get some creds. This is Coasterforce after all, not Darkrideforce (even though I'm sure @Serena wishes that was a real thing 😂).

Whilst the loos weren't nearby, there was a rather large B&M wing coaster next door by the name of Raptor. I won't say this lightly, but it's probably one of the best-themed coasters in this world. The whole area is gorgeous and immersive. They really make it feel like there is a beast that they've tried to contain and failed miserably. You can see where it's barged through with destructive force, leaving a trail of devastation that works perfectly for both an abundance of near misses on the ride and the story itself. Even the station is epic and imposing, with massive guns lining the wall, really highlighting the importance of trying to stop the Raptor from escaping. Finally, there are the trains; they look so angry and evil. No wonder they don't want it getting out! So, how was the ride? Placed in the back row, I had two brilliant rides, with floaty airtime, and well-paced inversions. It’s not often a ride catches me off guard like this, but I was genuinely shocked that it was this good. I love it when a beast of a ride meets my expectations, like Zadra at EL or Velocicoaster at IOA; but something really special happens when a ride dramatically exceeds your expectations and Raptor did exactly that. As far as raptor themed coasters go this wasn't the best we've ridden this year, but if you're comparing Raptor to other wing coasters then it stacks up very nicely. It’s now my favourite wing coaster and really showcased the most effective use of this ride type. More near misses + some nice airtime = a much better wing coaster. Lovely stuff!

Following our slight detour, it was now attempt number 2 at getting on Jumanji: The adventure. Placed outside the sign with 10 minutes to spare, we started noticing lots of very official-looking people around. Suits, ties and laminated Jumanji ride passes began to surround us; even for the opening of a new ride, I found this kind of odd. We needn’t wait long though till the reason for this was revealed and heading past the sign to the ride itself we were met with another blockage; only those with laminated superiority were allowed beyond this point before 12. Sadly being members of CF at various levels wasn’t quite VIP enough for them; so we abandoned Jumanji for now in search of the other big cred, Oblivion: The Black Hole.

The view of the O:TBH and the area it’s in is imposingly beautiful. I love the way it’s perched on the hill and that all the attractions in the area focus on taking you up high. Both the drop tower & flying island blend perfectly with the colour palette and theme of O:TBH; providing their own futuristic flair too. We only ended up waiting about 15 mins for O:TBH, but apparently this was to the ride's detriment as the indoor section of the (supposedly fab) extended queue was all closed on the day. Still not that much to complain about. We bagged a back row ride and I thoroughly enjoyed it. You get a great view of Lake Garda going up the lift hill and some sweet airtime on the drop, but the real highlight of the ride comes in the form of the airtime hill halfway through. This was ****ing brilliant. Hyper-esque sustained floater over the entire thing and it only got better when we went in the front later on in the day. All-in-all it’s a very solid ride and probably my favourite dive machine, why don’t the others feature big airtime hills!? Whilst I didn’t get the same shock factor around the quality of it like I did with Raptor; this was still my favourite coaster in the park… not my favourite ride though. That title belongs to the little drop tower next door, Space Vertigo.

And what fun it was! Only a baby drop tower at 131ft; Space Vertigo shows it’s not about size but what you do with it in the most awesome way. A fun queue themed to the inside of a space station with lights everywhere and Italian generals briefing you on your mission builds up the drama to the ride itself. Once onboard, you face screens that count down to your ascension. Oh, I do love it when a drop tower gets a bit more fanfare! You then head up, getting brief glimpses of Lake Garda or the park before heading into the weird futuristic cap they’ve put on top of the ride. Now I’m not against a cap on top of a drop tower; but if you’re going to do it, go Huracan Condor style and perch it right atop the thing. Instead of maximising your opportunity to take in the view, space vertigo’s hat encloses the ride vehicle, restricting your view of the park and Lake Garda. Strange choice if you ask me as some of the world’s most stunning scenery might be a little nicer than a dusty room filled with cobwebs, fortunately, this doesn’t take away from the main purpose of the ride. The drop. This drop absolutely plummets you downwards, leaving your stomach behind and providing bucket-loads of airtime. As a testament to how great this drop was, as we hit the brakes on the first ride, Serena involuntarily blurted “ooh that’s a good one” about 2 octaves lower than her natural voice 😂 I take my non-obscuring hat off to you Space Vertigo, a good one you are indeed!

(to experience an accurate representation of the tone of Serena’s voice at that moment, please follow the link below)


Time for attempt number 3 at Jumanji. There was a bit more activity in the area around the ride now. VIP’s and media were surrounding the entrance of the ride whilst we straddled the perimeter of the area, cordoned off with the rest of the regular guests. There were clearly people of note there, with many guests asking for photos with the Jumanji elite, not that we’d have known with our inferior knowledge of Italian celebs. It’s a bit weird that they’ve decided to do what is quite clearly a media event on a normal park day, but it did mean that they went all out with the ride opening. As the clock struck 12, the fountains surrounding the impressive façade arose in triumphant unison; the fake Italian Karen Gillan, Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart turned up in full outfits (I guess you could say they “rocked up”) and coloured smoke exploded above the ride building. It was quite the spectacle! Of course though, fearing that the VIP’s would be subjected to the other guests the perimeter of the entrance remained roped off. We stood and watched as the VIP’s formed an unorderly mob outside the entrance and concluded that we wouldn’t be getting on anytime soon. A queue hadn’t even been established for other guests at this point. So we left again, this time to ride the coaster next door, Shaman.

… oh dear. We’d had pretty smooth rides on all the coasters up till this point, but even with extensive retracking this Vekoma double looper very much had other ideas. The drop and loops were fine, clearly going in a straight line isn’t too much to ask from these models, as soon as it started turning and corkscrewing though; I was straight in the ring with the heavyweight champion of Lake Garda, doing its very best to knock me out. The exit of the second corkscrew delivered the most violent individual whack I’ve ever had on a coaster. Absolutely vile. +1, but at what cost? 😢

In the time that I’d spent trying to concuss myself, a Jumanji queue for normal guests had formed outside the pleb perimeter and whilst many VIP’s had yet to board, we thought this would be our best chance of the lowest possible wait time.

It took about 45 mins of watching the VIPs disappear into the facade while getting sunburnt (combined with the reprieve of the aforementioned dog spotting); then another hour or so before we were actually in the preshow room. Super frustrating when the queue isn't actually that long, but clearly they were having some opening day technical difficulties. It was very slow and ploddy. Even inside the queue within the main building the theming was a bit lacklustre. It was ok until about a foot before the ceiling where the immersion was abruptly cut off in favour of sparing some additional costs. The preshow was half decent and even though it was in Italian you could get the gist of it, you have 3 lives, "save Jumanji", bla bla... I was just a bit fed up by this point. The preshow screen transitions quite well to a hidden doorway through to the station, I'll give it a point for that but then we had more waiting to endure. Admittedly the station was themed well, with the operating booth dressed up to look like a food market stall, I did like that... but this tiny, single switchback in the room took us about another 20 mins. They infuriatingly sent car after car with no guests on, I'm sure there was a good reason for it, but my god it was painful to watch. Finally, we boarded the ride vehicle, ready to witness the rewards of our efforts in patience.

Was it worth it? Not really. I expect long waits on an opening day and we were going to do it regardless, but I'd maybe wait 20 minutes maximum to ride it again. It was ok and there were little touches I liked. The ride vehicles were cool, imitating the movement of each scene without the traditional sickening feeling provided by most motion simulators. There were some nice physical sets and they used the “life system” to ramp up tension a little, entering the last scene with only 1 left… but that wasn’t enough to detract from the negatives which were actually foreshadowed quite well in the queue room. This ride loved to break immersion. The scenes themselves weren’t awful or ground-breaking, but between each one were empty corridors nothing to look at bar the emergency exit signs illuminating the blank space. I felt more like I was in an empty Ikea with the lights switched off than Jumanji. The transitions between “empty building, blank wall” and “don’t forget you’re in danger, Jumanji is out to get you” made it feel unfinished; hopefully they put some more cash in to make it into a world-class attraction. It has the potential, but I feel sorry for anyone that queued as long as we did for it.

With that out the way, we could get back to focusing on other, better attractions. We wolfed down a quick bit of food at the BBQ place next to O:TBH (it was ok, but when we saw the focaccia food stalls we immediately regretted our decision) and then set out our battle plan for the rest of the day. Sadly the wind had picked up to the point that all the big coasters/drop towers had closed temporarily, so we headed to the other big dark ride, I Corsari.

I loved this ride! I Corsari was so much better than Ju-meh-nji. Gone were the barren corridors and distracting exit signs, in place of another attraction that Gardaland gets completely right on the immersion front. You enter this massive boat that leads down to the ride itself; keeping the theming consistent from the moment you enter the queue. Once onboard (and in only 10 mins as well) you’re taken through waterways and caves as you’re pursued by ghostly pirates and awesomely terrifying sub-mechanic sea monsters. It was so cool!

That definitely took the sting out of the time discarded on Jumanji and the lack of open coasters, but we did still have the issue of the latter. We attempted to ride the madhouse but they wouldn’t let us on with our bags, instead encouraging us to leave them with all our valuables on the hooks provided outside the entrance. Open for anyone to just pick up and walk off with… I think not. Fortunately, this wasn’t the end of the world as there is still so much to do here! I will speed it up a little though as the main things of note have been covered.

We strolled past the spiteful SLC, it was like the wind was doing us a favour with this one and secured some rides on the wonderfully themed rapids and Intamin Water Coaster. Both got us a little wet, both had Europa scale theming and both had basically no wait. Don’t mind if we do!

By a stroke of luck, in the time we spent on those rides the wind had calmed just enough so the big rides could open again. We managed another couple more goes on O:TBH and Space Vertigo, pretty much taking us to the end of the day in the best way; filled with airtime. We did have a quick go on the log flume too before leaving; we probably could have squeezed in one more ride, but a two and a bit hour drive over to Ravenna that night meant we were happy to leave it there.

Wow, what a wonderful park Gardaland is! Most rides surpassed my expectations, queues were very short for the most part and aside from the glaringly obvious shortcomings of Jumanji and the one genuine spite of the day, Sequoia Magic Loop, it was a perfect day. It’s so great to see what a Merlin park can be when no expense is spared. It felt fresh and well maintained. The theming was grand and really made it feel like the undisputed premier park in Italy. Germany has Europa Park, Spain has Portaventura and Italy has Gardaland. Even if it’s a one day park; I do truly feel like this belongs in the elite rankings with its European counterparts. I was absolutely blown away and would be just as keen to revisit here as any other major park destination. Despite the amount spent on Jumanji they can’t be long off due a new coaster, so if something gets built in the next 3 years or so I’ll be back in a heartbeat!

We left the sunny Lake Garda for Ravenna on rather stormy roads, shaking the poor Fiat 500 all over the road. It was a bit of a nervy drive but we made it through, using the massive illuminated Walls logo on the Mirabilandia Ferris wheel as a beacon. Finally stopping for some food, we dived into a restaurant for some oversized pizza, pasta and complimentary soup. I’ll take a little about the state of the hotel in the next upload, but all-in-all it was a damn good Saturday.
 
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Awesommmme! What a refreshing change from all these pesky Florida reports!
(And I'm so glad you fixed the typo in the title 😉)
Haha i'm glad I could change it up a bit, not sure how much more perspective I need on the ol' Velocicoaster vs IG debate haha 😅 Eagerly awaiting the final day of your TR too ;)
(Yeah, I was mortified that it was up for as long as it was without me noticing 😂)
 
Great read dude.

I’m half eyeing up some of these Italian parks for early summer, so this is now my unofficial travel brochure 😂
Glad you're enjoying it!

Do it! I never expected it to be as good as it was, but it's easily been one of my favorite trips since we could travel again :)
 

TilenB

Strata Poster
oh dear. We’d had pretty smooth rides on all the coasters up till this point, but even with extensive retracking this Vekoma double looper very much had other ideas. The drop and loops were fine, clearly going in a straight line isn’t too much to ask from these models, as soon as it started turning and corkscrewing though; I was straight in the ring with the heavyweight champion of Lake Garda, doing its very best to knock me out. The exit of the second corkscrew delivered the most violent individual whack I’ve ever had on a coaster. Absolutely vile. +1, but at what cost? 😢
Damn, Shaman was actually running pretty fine before the re-track in 2019. The layout obviously isn't particularly inspired, but it tracked really well for a 30+ years old coaster. I have no idea what they managed to do with the re-track, but it sounds like a nice example of botched theme park plastic op.

Nice reading the rest of the report, though! I really need to get myself back to Movieland. It's about a 4h drive from me, but I haven't been since its early seasons when most of the crazy stuff didn't exist yet. I believe Magma opened with the park and the submarine simulator was new for my last visit, while the frefall was in its final stages of construction.
 

Serena

Miss CoasterForce 2016
Staff member
Social Media Team
Another great read @Slamming Coastercore :)

Thanks for capturing all the fun of our great day at Gardaland! It's always nice to come back to a theme park and be so pleasantly surprised. I simply do not remember Gardaland being this good from my previous visit!

The park looked gorgeous, the rides were great, the atmosphere was lovely and the queues were minimal (apart from Queue-Manji!)

Definitely a top-tier park in Europe. That drop tower alone is worth the trip 😍

Admittedly, I thought more favourably of Jumanji than Alex did. A ride on opening day is always going to have teething issues which will affect the queue. Plus, Merlin do have a habit of opening rides then bettering them afterwards. Remember Swarm before the near-miss billboard, for example?

In terms of Merlin dark rides , I also think back to how Nemesis Sub Terra opened and the luke-warm reception it received, then how they improved the ride in the space of a few months. Hopefully Jumanji will receive more tweaks and more theming, because the potential for a great ride is very much there.

Yours Truly,
The CEO of Darkrideforce ;)
 
Sunday 11th April 2022

“Ahhh Ravennaa, bakithi, baba…”

Sadly I did not arise in Ravenna like Simba did at the start of Lion King. No, instead I arose stiff necked and cranky after experiencing one of the most dire hotels I’ve ever stayed in. If staying in beds with micro-thin sheets and resting your heads on pillowcases filled with rocks sounds like your idea of a cracking hotel evening; look no further than the Singapore Hotel in Ravenna. To add insult to injury they also had no soap in the bathroom; leading to some rather futile water-only showers. Feeling like you’ve woken up at a festival covered in filth and tired is never the best way to start your day; but sometimes budget dictates where you end up and like a festival there were some very redeeming features of the location. Mirabilandia was under 15 minutes down the road.

Now this wasn’t my first visit to Mirabilandia. I went on a family holiday to Pisa back in 2019 and like any good goon, I split off from them for a day, hired my own car and drove to the other side of Italy to get on some creds I’d been dreaming about since my early teenage years. I enjoyed my time there in 2019 and don’t mind a solo trip; but 7 hours of driving in a day, little sleep thanks to an obnoxious fly and tedious operations made the day a bit of a slog. Needless to say I was really looking forward to seeing how much better the park was with some fantastic company and feeling (minorly) more well rested.

Mirabilandia

“Mirabilandia, Mirabilandia…” we sung to the tune of the Energylandia theme song (what a Ka-tune) as we walked through the carpark towards the lovely castle façade at the entrance of Mirabliandia. I forgot how nice this entrance is, having way more charm than the larger entrances of both the previously visited parks. Even once you’re through the turnstiles the entrance hub carries this charm through with its small shops and pirate-y/adventure theming. I do really like this part of Mirabilandia, but sadly the charm sort of stops there. Leaving the entrance hub it goes back to being much more of a standard, flat amusement park, the small lake/pond in the middle being the only thing that adds some natural “beauty” to the park (even then it was concerningly brown in some places).

Aesthetics aside this park does have some rather legendary creds; iSpeed and Katun being the main bigguns. The original plan was to hit the Maurer Spike coaster, Desmo Race, first; knowing full well that capacity was likely to be nightmare at two riders per car. To get there though you do have to pass so tantalisingly close to iSpeed; so we thought we’d have a quick go on our way round.

Yeesh, iSpeed looks a bit knackered doesn’t it? I’m surprised there is any red paint left! The barebones theming as you walk up to the ride (flags indicating a race or something like that) doesn’t exactly help either… but hey, it’s essentially Maverick’s European sister coaster and Intamin’s hardware is still some of the best out there, so how did it ride? Pretty good I thought! Early in the day it was running a little sluggish and we were towards the back of the train which didn’t help things, but it mirrored my previous experiences with it so I was happy. @Serena & @Coop on the other hand didn’t think much of it at all, which was a bit of a shame… but we’ll come back to it later.

We popped over to Desmo Race in the equally soulless Ducati area; again hardware being the main standout amongst the flat pathways. Maybe if you appreciate motorbikes this area has a bit more for you, but it felt really bland and empty. Still, Desmo Race itself is quite the spectacle with its intertwining single rail tracks and prominent airtime hills wrapping around each other. Capacity wasn’t the only factor to contend with on this attraction though and sadly reliability was very much a something to be taken into consideration too. More sign thwarting at the entrance signified that it wasn’t ready yet so we had to come back later; no testing either but there were an optimistic number of ride engineers scurrying about in the station. The lack of Desmo Race meant that the next logical step was that massive B&M invert, Katun.

After a brief little diversion getting on the Preston & Barbieri mobius loop coaster, Master Thai, it was time to ride Katun. I love how imposing this ride is! Where most inverts stick to being quite low to the ground and snappy, Katun favours massive elements, from the drop to the inversions, it absolutely makes the most it’s size. @Serena & @Coop opted for a front row ride, but that was maybe a 5 train wait, so I took myself off for a walk-on back row ride. I was fortunate enough to be placed in the same row as some Italian goons, one of them appreciating my Energylandia trackies. We spent the lifthill talking about The Ride to Happiness and Kondaa, which is always a nice way to spend time on a coaster; that was abruptly cut short though as we had a ride to experience! I have mixed feelings on Katun. It’s absolutely relentless and going that fast on an invert is an incredible feeling; as I get older though I appreciate high positive G’s less and less (slightly nervous for i305 in June) and for me the best parts of the ride are all in the relatively straight run out. Whilst fairly typical of B&M, the drop, loop and zero-g are all solid fun; but my favourite moment comes at one of the most unexpected points, the transition from the zero-g roll to the cobra roll. You swoop into the bottom of the cobra roll with such floaty speed and grace all whilst really low to the ground. Going at that pace on an invert and that close to the ground is a wonderful feeling and whilst your legs are flapping about above your head on the inversions, you miss out on the sense of speed Katun is so good at creating. I don’t adore Katun, but I do enjoy it. I also managed to sneak onto the front row ride just as Serena and Coop reached the air-gates in the station. Definitely preferred the front, it just about has the edge over the back with its “sense of speed” factor. One more back row ride with Coop whilst Serena spent some time appreciating the dogs of Mirabilandia and we were done with Katun for the day. Lots of positives take their toll after 3 consecutive rides!

Taking a little breather after that, we took some photos of Katun and sauntered back round to Desmo Race. It’s occasionally testing now, but with the queue still closed we decided to head back to the iSpeed half of the park where we had one of the stranger moments of the trip. We stopped off at the Sweet Shop near iSpeed to get a snack to tide us over and were met with a very enthusiastic shopkeeper… maybe a bit too enthusiastic. We purchased our snacks and then she gave us a token for a free photo in the park. We took it, thinking it was fairly non-committal and might be valid for an ORP, that was very much not the case though. She marched us out of the shop, leaving it completely vacant and handed us off to her colleague that proceeded to guide us to one of those dress-up photo shoot stalls… oh no 😬

In all my years of theme-parking I’ve managed to avoid the awkwardness of these dress-up photo shops; but at Mirabilandia it seemed to be the perfect storm as we’d done the two major coasters there and without any obligated cost there wasn’t really any good reason to say no. What followed was painful. A professional photographer first put Serena and myself in an assortment of hats/cringe inducing poses, whilst taking unflattering photos at blistering speeds. Honestly, some of these hats and poses were sooo bad! I think I had a cowboy hat, a fedora, a tweed flat cap (to which Serena pulled possibly the most turned-off face I’ve ever received from her 😂) and a top hat. None of them looked good and I couldn’t believe we’d chosen to spend our time in the park doing this… I will say though, I did spend the entire shoot laughing; lots of it was uncomfortable laughter, but laughter all the same. After that ordeal was done we had to select our one free photo. Of the hundreds to pick from we whittled it down to 5 or so passable ones and even then, the last photo we ended up with was an unflattering mess. Never again ill say haha, but I’m glad I’ve ticked that one off… now we know 😅

With that costumed photographic assault out the way we could finally get back to riding things (yay!) and next on the list was their shooty dark ride, Reset. Now I feel a bit sorry for this ride (or more the ride ops); it’s really tucked away in the corner of the park behind Divertical and as it’s a bit of a walk from the main park there was absolutely no one down there. The theming inside though is half decent, having a semi-post apocalyptic feel to it. Think as if the bits of DBGT between the VR was a dark ride and longer obviously. Whilst my gun didn’t work both Coop’s and Serena’s did and the targets all seemed to react accurately. The sets weren’t bad either for a park that’s pretty barebones on theming. It’s worth a go if you’re there, even if it’s just to give the ride ops some minor entertainment for 5 minutes.

Dark ride done, Serena and Coop took a diversion to Divertical which I avoided; having memories of being soaked with horrible musty swamp water from 2019. They said it was good, but I’m sure Serena can expand on that. Polishing off the area we had a go at their tube slide set, similar to Depth Charge, which provided a fun bit of airtime. Arguably more entertaining than the ride itself, from the stairs to the top of the slides you could see where they’d set up horror mazes for their Halloween event; something that very much caught Serena’s interest. It then became a game of, “spot where the horror maze should be” which I know entertained her greatly 😂

Heading back into the main park and expertly evading the staff trying to flag people down for the fretful photoshoot; we managed to finally get ourselves into the queue of Desmo Race. The queue was an ok size when we joined and what would probably be about 5 minutes on the B&M invert next door took about 25. Honestly though that in itself was very impressive. They only had one of the tracks open (left) and with two people per car you’d expect this to take ages; but those cars were absolutely flying out the station. I’d say they were probably dispatching each one in under 30 seconds keeping the queue moving and making the wait very bareable. It’s also a great ride to watch, due to the moterbike design of the cars and faux throttle to add acceleration it’s really fun to see how people lean into the turns; revving the ride vehicles to get the most out of the decently sized layout. With us having three people it was clear that one person was going to have to be the passenger whilst the other two drove. Serena was unsure about going “completely flat out” on her first run so she opted to go on her own; whist me and Coop engaged in a nailbiting game of rock, paper, scissors to go as the driver… he won. Boarding the moving car you get secured with no bar, but the beefy-est seatbelts out there, really aiding the sense of freedom as you rocket around the single rail track. This was my first proper (sorry Steeplechase) single rail ride experience, and what an experience it was. These rides are so much fun! The forces Desmo Race delivered were way better than I was anticipating, it’s really fast for how exposed you are and the airtime hills deliver some lovely floater. We all loved our rides, Serena ending up going flat out as well and coming into the station with a massive grin on her face. I did have a go as the driver a little later on and yes, it is way more fun to be in the front; however I would say that the throttle is more for show than to actually add speed to the ride, you might finish the course a couple of seconds faster, but that is about it. I’d be really happy to see more of these pop up, but with the reliability and capacity issues (this was a quite day) I can understand why some parks might be hesitant to add one to their line-up. All round fun and very rerideable, we concluded that Desmo Race was our favourite ride of the day so far and stopped for some lunch at the burger place next door.

I tell you what, despite the view of probably the brownest bit of the Mirabilandia lake; that burger place has some of the best food I’ve ever had in a theme park. 10/10 would recommend!

Suitably stuffed, we made our way over to catch the end of the hot wheels stunt show, which we were promptly denied entry too due to our Covid masks. Apparently the only ones they’d let in were the particularly beaky ones that look like you’re about to work with asbestos… even though all the staff at every other attraction either weren’t wearing one or had the standard blue medical ones. It would seem that the inconsistency of Covid policies in parks isn’t something we’re done with quite yet. Conveniently the entrance to the Hot Wheels stunt show is right next to the log flume so that helped to quell the dissapointment a little bit (even though Serena did get a little soaked 😅)

We then mopped up some of the other rides like the shot tower, rapids and the little skyveiw ride over their dinosaur land. Not much to say on those other than, do not underestimate the rapids. What you think are waterfall fakeouts are not fakeouts at all... they get you ****ing drenched 😂 The dino land is quite nicely themed for what it is, but some of the animatronics are looking a little knackered. Without much left to do we entered reride territory and the end of the day; settling for some more rides on Desmo race and giving iSpeed a chance to redeem itself.

Demso race was fun as ever, but those final rerides on iSpeed ended up being some of the best on the trip. We opted for front row as it was only about a 3 train wait and my god that was a good choice. The combination of the front row and a full day of warming up gave us some sensational rides; every element just hit differently. It was so good that we went straight back round for an equally sensational go on the front. One neat little feature of iSpeed is the fact you're filmed as you go round (akin to Saw or Shambhala), which leads to some hilarious footage. The involuntary faces of joy as you hit the airtime hill are something special and so much fun to watch back. You could feel the airtime just by watching it and laughing at each others combined facial expressions of joy was a beautiful way to finish the day!

One last amusing anecdote; we went into the gift shop on are way out to peruse some merch and we found a fridge magnet that tickled us greatly. It had the face of one of the parks mascots, a dog, and Fanny written in big letters underneath 😂

Ahh Mirabilandia, what a mixed bag you are! I did have a lot of fun here, but there is definitely work to be done. iSpeed and Demso Race are the highlights of the park, both delivering unique experiences that would be difficult to replicate without leaving Europe. Katun is really fun too, but inversion/postive G focussed rides are never going to be a favourite of mine. I'm sure this park would be considered top of the range in 2009 when it had one of the strongest coaster lineups in Europe; but in 2022 as other parks have developed, Mirabilandia seems to be a bit behind its peers. It really needs both a big new coaster and a healthy dollup of TLC to get it back to "must-visit" levels. We probably only queued for a maximum of 10 minutes on our day there and for a bright Sunday it was very quiet. Mirabilandia has potential, it has Fanny magnets, it just needs some serious investment too to get the crowds (and us) coming back.

With all the parks done we had not much else to do other than drive back to Verona for our flight home the following day. We did however make a quick stop off at the beach in Ravenna. We parked opposite the strangely named Cactus Sex Shop and went for a lovely stroll along the coast; soaking in the last gorgeous rays before returning back to normality. The drive back was stunning, with red skies and sillouetted mountains in view the whole journey. Reflecting on the weekend in that moment had me missing Italy already and I'm so glad we went. You're not going to get those sights in Staines after all ❤️

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John1971

Roller Poster
Really enjoyed reading your TR. Made me relive my own 2021 Italian Coastertrip. The onboard video of I-Speed is hilarious indeed! Raptor over in Gardaland offers onride-videos as well, with a hollywood-blockbuster-style intro hahaha.
Great TR, great sense of humor too, thanks for the effort! Greets from Holland!
 
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