Liva Italia II - June 2015 - Trip Reports

[peep]

Ian, I think there's one in my trip report. I'll PM you later if I remember.


Tuesday 23rd

So after a nice hotel breakfast (where we were concerned about hidden food charges that didn't relate to what we had) we made our way onwards to the next park, Cavallino Matto. A new park for everyone on the trip it was quite exciting. Upon arrival there was some initial faff while tickets were sorted and then it was time for some creds.








A really fab themed splash battle

Our first ride of the day was Project 1. There wasn't much to this ride, it was a decent little family coaster.









We then made our way over to the wild mouse coaster. Felt like something was watching us...







Not a lot to say about this one either, a standard layout with a standard experience of meh. So it was onwards to the third cred of the day, Speedy Gonzales.







It was another pretty standard little kids coaster. Some smaller fun rides were next on our agenda starting with the porn ponies. Totem pole judgement time...







But wait, something was wrong, Fraser was catching up with Nic! This resulted in most of us watching and waiting for a crash (they failed to make contact) which was amusing and added a bit of drama to a traditional CF Live ride experience.





I still got the feeling we were being watched...



We spent some time staring at the Togo Standup, Freestyle. It was a little frustrating it wasn't ready for our trip as it looked great in it's new location and it's a fun ride (Togo standups are fab <3 ).

Some of the group took the opportunity to ride a weird chairlift thing.







Then most of the group tried out the little log flume.











We then proceeded to make our way over to the other kids cred. However I still felt like we were being watched...









It was yet another rather standard +1. Nothing more to see here folks. We decided to try out some of their thrill flat rides. We started with the drop tower, Shocking tower. This ride was all about the views from the top. Wow, the whole park is shrouded with these tall trees and then there's just Freestyle popping out in it's garish yellow for all to see. In the distance is the sea which looked rather inviting on yet another hot day. Actually, we were able to take in these views quite easily as you stay at the top for what feels like forever. So you get all relaxed at the top, enjoying said view and then BAM, you drop and it really makes your stomach go. Excellent stuff.



Some of us then chose to ride Yucatan, a frisbee style ride. It provided a great thrill, didn't go on too long and being so close to all the trees really added to the ride experience.



Some of us then went back for more Shocking tower. As we were coming back down the tower though the operator just runs off to the loo but luckily she had already called over the Yucatan op to open our restraints. Some of the group then decided to ride Rock n Roll, a big spinny thing. I didn't really fancy it so I went and had a look at the park's tat. I was surprised at the range of stuff they sold. Good for them.



Some of us then had a little snack before we made our way back to the cars. I really liked this park, nothing really of note (well, apart from a massive Togo) but it was just a really pleasant setting for a park with some nice attractions dotted about. It must be a great park for locals who want to just pop in from time to time after school/work.

We then drove onwards to a potential +1. I was amused when after reading a parking sign saying no parking is allowed on Tuesday's Ian said that's fine because it's not Tuesday. Typical holiday moment where you lose track of the days <3 Anyway after some car parking faff we made our way through a closing street market to find the little sea-side park was closed! Well, we could wander in but there were no staff around etc. I went and asked a market stall person who was still around what time they were likely to open, she replied with 'later in the evening', she was going to find a more conclusive answer than that but I thought she meant something like 8/9pm which would have been too late for us. It was decided we'd move on to Pisa and then maybe venture back in the hope the creds opened up by the time we returned.

After a bit of a drive we found ourselves in Pisa. As soon as we got out of the car we were being harassed by those tourist spot sales guys. A little annoying but just a clear indication of what Pisa has turned into - a massive tourist trap. Still, I was glad I finally got to visit this historic place, yet another tick on that traditional sight-seeing list. I loved our group photo where we were all over the place doing the common photo op with the drunk tower. It seemed to amuse quite a few people walking past at the time which was cool.



Although it's just a wonky tower that gets all the attention the surrounding buildings were also quite superb.









Hard to capture in a photo but the angles of the doorway and the steps was ridiculous...





We had a nice meal in a restaurant down the street pictured above. Then everyone grabbed some gelato from the place next door. However being the ice cream goon that I am I noticed somewhere that looked better on the way to the tower so waited to grab some there on the way back to the car. Oh jeez I was so glad I did, they did this Tiramisu thing was which was just glorious. Om nom nom.

We then went back to the little park to discover it was still sort of closed. There was a woman operating a little kids carousel and after asking her and then Ian having a word we discovered there was no one around to open the other rides yet. I suppose it was worth a try. We then had a 2 hour drive up to our next hotel in Bologna. It was a Holiday Inn Express and when we arrived the foyer was rammed due to some company conventions happening. As it was now quite late we decided to just wander around the shopping area next to the hotel to find food. We all settled on a Bavarian themed restaurant. It was really nice and the food was very tasty. Dan had beer...




As did I...




It was then time for some much needed sleep - car journeys are so good at making you feel tired.


Thanks for reading!

 

[Ian]

Final cred of the trip (or so we thought at the time) was Brontojet. I had a couple of goes, both at the front and back. It was good until the dreadful final corner which slams you into the side of the train. There was a cute little lizard living on one of the trains, I hope he enjoyed it.

Lol, I remember you saying that you didn't want to ride with the lizard and swiftly moved a few carriages down from it. I have this vision of the lizards eyes bulging out whenever he experienced the g's.

Ian, I think there's one in my trip report. I'll PM you later if I remember.

Got it, thanks, peep. I remember seeing one somewhere. BTW, I love your reports. You often see things that everybody (well, me) misses.

And talking about "John, that is a new machine", there was this moment in Gardaland where peep reminded Vadge that she hadn't said it yet whilst pointing his eyes towards Oblivion TBH. The look of horror on Vadge's face when she realised her mistake was classic. Thankfully, within seconds, Vadge was bellowing "JOHN! That is a new machine" and the world started turning again.

(For those not in the loop, whenever peep is near a new coaster, Vadge must shout Amanda Thompson's most famous line at him. It's the law.)

 

[Rach]

Sorry, I've been slacking a bit with these!

So following on, our next park of the trip was to be Cavallino Matto. I'd not really heard much about the park, or really looked into it much. All I really knew was it was getting the Togo from Canada's Wonderland and that was about it.

After a short drive from the hotel, we arrived. I expected the park to be a bit of a run down dump in all honesty, but I was pleasantly surprised by the whole place.

We headed on into the park and made our way towards the first of our +1s of the day. Project 1 was the biggest of the creds the park had. It was decent enough for a park of smaller rides. Nothing exceptional though!

Continuing around the park. The next +1 was to the Wild Mouse - oh I'm so sick of these things, but they are after all a +1.

Another +1 followed in the form of Speedy Gonzales - unsurprisingly another +1.

We moved away from the creds and started to have a look at what else the park had to offer. We headed on the good old Porn Ponies. Clearly we were trying to make the most of what the park had to offer. Nic and Fraser's Ponies got a bit frisky and mine got a bit jealous and tried to catch up! :lol:

We then done the marginally terrifying swing on a zip line thing. Which was decent enough fun for all of about a minute!

We then headed towards Freestyle which we knew was going to be spiting us. It looked like they still had a fair amount of work left to do on it, but people were working on it so it can't be too long until it opens (or has already). I had rode it back at Canada's Wonderland in 2013 and thought it to be reasonable, shame we couldn't ride it, but nevermind. The paint job on it however, looked very smart!

A few of us decided to do the Log Flume which had a short wait and had a decent length to it! Some of the English sign translations were most amusing. Otherwise, not much else to say about it apart from slightly moist.

We then headed over towards the other side of the park. We headed to the Drop Tower. We seemed to be left up there for a little while, but this wasn't a bad thing as we could enjoy the view. There was a stunning view overlooking the sea and the blanket of fluffy trees with the occasional gap for a cred or rides sitting through. Drop itself was quite weak, but made up in the views.

With the final cred to get, we headed over towards that. Topo Zorro is a glorified Big Apple with Cheese instead of the Apple. It again was another +1.

A few of the group headed to do Yukutan which is a small compact outside Frisbee. It seemed to take them ages to start the ride. But when it did, I headed to get a few photos:

That was pretty much it for the park. The final ride of the park was to be Jukebox. I really like these bouncy spinny rides. I find it great fun that you get flung all over the place with no real idea of where you are going to end up next. I think I rode the one at Heide 4 times when we went there last year! :lol:

We had a look in the tat shop and got a quick bite to eat before hitting the road towards Pisa.

There was a bonus +1 not too far out from Pisa, but sadly when we arrived, it wasn't a +1, more like a +2 but closed.
We decided we may try again a bit later that Evening as it wasn't too much of a drive from Pisa.

So back into the cars, and made our way towards Pisa for some culture times. Ticking yet another monument off in Italy, we headed towards the Leaning Tower after wading our way through tat stalls.

.

After a couple of photos acting like idiots and also a few sensible ones. We headed to get some Lunch and Ice Cream at a nearby restaurant.
We must've spent around an hour and half in the restaurant, before heading towards the tat market to pick up some good old tacky souvenirs! Good old leaning shot glass!!

We then headed back to the cars and back towards the +2 that we had gone to earlier. There was a little more life this time around, but still no one about to open any of the rides until 9pm.

With that, we jumped back in the cars ready for a long drive occupied mostly by the A-Z of coasters game over to Bologna!

 

[peep]

Wednesday 24th

It was time to go back to a park I'd already visited twice, Mirabilandia. I was really looking forward to going back, it has a great selection of rides and I couldn't wait to get back on iSpeed and Katun and see how they compare to everything else I've ridden now. After some initial faff waiting outside the entrance and watching quite a few people pile into the park we eventually made our way in and we headed straight for iSpeed. The entrance area for the park is fab....









We arrived at iSpeed to find quite a short queue - hurrah!









I really love iSpeed. Yeah it could do without the silly Intamin over the shoulder restraints but it's still a really fun ride. However the launch was so weak, I can only assume it was just warming up so I looked forward to getting back on later in the day.

The Credgtable was next. Having already secured the +1 on previous visits I opted to take some photos of the other loving life on the ride...









Next up was the car themed log flume. This had a bit of a queue but it moved quickly. I was going to film on ride but the operator didn't approve - sad face. The ride itself was fun and provided a nice layer of moisture to help us deal with that hot sun. As we just happen to come across it next the Rapids were ridden. Mike sat out, which was nice of him as it meant we didn't risk our stuff getting soaked. However, I did get to film this time....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onD3syzBrek[/youtube]


It was a very wet ride for some and not so much for the rest. Nic shows off her level of wetness..



We then squelched over to Master Thai. The queue looked burdenous, mainly because it was, however it looked like it could have been a lot worse. It moves in drips and drabs but the whole thing doesn't have any shade which is rather burdenous. I had ridden this previously, it's pretty bad. Nothing had changed here. The first drop and hill are fine, actually quite fun, but then as soon as it attempts to do anything other than a straight line it just ends up causing unnecessary pain. I'm exaggerating a little on the pain front but it's still unpleasant and then you have to do it all again. Silly ride.









It was then time for the main event, Katun. Dan was adamant about riding front row for this first time, so Fraser and I joined him while everyone else enjoyed the coaster a few times while we waited in quite a long queue. It was also only on one train, this was frustrating. However I am so glad we waited for front. It's so ridiculous, that first drop is just mental and then the forces throughout the rest of the ride are just intense. We were all buzzing when it came to an end. It is such a brilliant ride.





It was decided that food should be a thing getting in our faces so we went over to the canteen place over by the log flume. I had some pasta which was pretty delicious. To let our food settle it was decided that reset should be next. On our way over to the park's interactive dark ride we stared and took pictures of the spiteful Divertical. They were testing the lift mechanism.





I'll admit it looks great against the blue sky but yeah, I still don't understand why they got this ride and it has given them nothing but hassle. Anyway, it was onwards to shoot at some things...








0-3 sad onions cannot ride


My score



I really love the design of the exterior and queueline for this ride. It really sets up this dystopian city vibe well. The queueline is actually quite creepy, more so when there's no one else in it. The ride system is the same at Buzz Lightyear at Paris in that you can control your vehicle's spin apart from a few scenes where it loses control and goes mental. Apart from that and its unique style it's rather meh, not really sure why though.

We then ventured into Dinoland, a part of the park which has been heavily expanded since my last visit. They somehow managed to do a big ad thing with Universal for Jurassic World, clever. The new theming was really good and a vast improvement on what it used to look like. My favourite thing was the T-Rex shaped tree.









As we were queuing for the powered coaster it decided to have some downtime so the group headed over to Pakal. It's evil brake run at the end and big queue had me going in search of ice cream with Nic. Ice cream was consumed and it made me happy. We then made our way back over to the powered coaster. I was easily amused that they renamed their powered coaster from Explorer, to, yep, Rexplorer.








Some of us then took the opportunity to ride the shot tower. It was good fun, the launch wasn't as intense as anticipated, which was nice.






It was then back over to Katun for some more goes on that. Somehow it managed to be even better, it was just blitzing it around the track - incredible stuff.









We then headed over to iSpeed for two more goes on that. Yep, it was even better, the launch was a lot better than it was in the morning and overall rode really well. I love it's unique layout and the way it flows (well, apart from maybe the snap after the mid course brake run), the corkscrew over the station is fab.

We then headed into the busy tat shop before heading back to the hotel. Yet again I had an absolute blast at Mirabilandia, it has such an excellent selection of rides. I think it's still missing another medium-sized coaster and maybe a second dark ride but overall it's full of fun things.

Most of us then decided to get a cab and head into Bologna. The cab driver had classical music on, nice. We stood around taking some pictures of the town centre which was really pleasant, lots of big old buildings. They were also gearing up to show a film on the square which is cool.












Frisky fountain


That girl was awful at taking our photo

We then went in search of food. We saw lots of old interesting buildings, so many that we got rather distracted from our search of food.





More towers were found and one of them was looking rather wonky....







We then proceeded to find a little restaurant down a small side street. The staff went out of their way and opened up the first floor just for us. On the ground floor one side the restaurant had this massive chunk of old wall sort of through it, it seemed like quite a significant historical thing. Cool.

It was really nice having the floor to ourselves and meant our loud banter didn't annoy anyone else. I had a beer that occasionally has Joey's face on it. I had a calzone for my main course which was pretty tasty.





After stuffing our faces and talking about things we managed to get ourselves some more cabs back to the hotel where we proceeded to get some more energy for another long day.



Thanks for reading.

 

[TilenB]

I agree with basically everything you said about Mirabilandia, peep. It's such a great park and Katun and iSpeed are both amazing rides (I don't really get all the bad comments about iSpeed from other people's TRs, might be they only rode it in the morning, when it wasn't properly warmed up yet?). And finally somebody that agrees on Master Thai's turns being dreadful, the ride was just eurgh...
Shame they spited their nice little ghost train - Ghostville a few seasons ago in favour of an upcharge haunted walkthrough. It was one of the better ones of its kind!

 

[peep]

^That upcharge walkthrough seems to get quite a few guests doing it though so I can only assume it's fairly popular? (going off two visits though so hard to tell).


Thursday 25th

After filling up on another standard hotel breakfast we headed onwards to Lake Garda and it's large Merlin park, Gardaland. The area was full of signs for tourists, including loads for sexy shops...



Upon arriving I had to go through the side entrance due to my German Merlin Pass ticket. I then proceeded to meet the others just inside the entrance before we moved on towards the back of the park.



We were going to do Raptor first but with a 30 minute queue and potential for that time to go down we decided to continue with the first plan. I forgot how nice the park looks.







We then arrived at Sequoia Adventure where Nic, Ian and I looked after everyone's bags. Really couldn't be bothered to go through that experience again. It's such a terrible contraption.





There was quite a long wait so it led us to go a little mad. Nic decided to place leaves on Ian and make him walk over to where I was and see how many fell off...



The rest of the group then started their torturous adventure on the S&M contraption so I took a few photos...









We then proceeded round to Ortobruco Tour, the family coaster hidden in it's own little area. It has such a unique layout with not that many thrills however it does has many hills.





We then joined the horrible looking queue for Magic Mountain. The queue is poorly designed, it's sort of split in two and not long enough to deal with crowds. On top of this it's very wide meaning that people constantly try to push past. The ride itself is fine, some nice inversions and not a lot else going on.







Next up was one of my favourite dark rides in the World, Ramses. It's like a mental mash up of The Mummy, Terminator and Iron Maiden. It was a lot shorter than I remember it being but I still love it, so unique and for Merlin to make something this awesome is just rare.








blurry score

It was then over to I Corsari (or Pirates of the multi-storey car park). An absolute hidden gem in this park, the way the entire ride is hidden by a giant ship and pirate village is so fab. It all just looks fantastic and then the spiralling queueline into the depths of the ride area is excellent. Merlin have introduced a silly photo op mid-queue because they're idiots and they don't understand how queuelines work but apart from that it was as brilliant as I remembered. The ride itself, if you hadn't guessed, is a Pirates of the Caribbean rip-off but some actual effort was put in and the scale is pretty great. Unfortunately some scenes were ruined by the house lights being on (standard warehouse lighting) and some parts were starting to show their age. I was also really surprised by the random piece of music from Hook (one of my favourite films). After the swashbuckling adventure you exit into a small shop and then into the generic bland corridor of lost theming with escalators!









It was then decided that lunch should be a thing. For once the group actually split up. I ended up having a very nice ham sandwich in the Moroccan themed area.





We also had some gelato which was tasty. We then proceeded to meet up with the rest of the group over at Raptor. Due to Ian's poor back he didn't want to wait in line (20-30 min wait) so paid for everyone to have a front row express pass - thank you Ian! Previous to riding it I was concerned it would have aged badly or my high opinion from riding it in opening year was wrong in some way. I didn't need to worry, it was still phenomenal and the best wingrider out there by a country mile. The first drop is fantastic, the inversions are fun and although short the added excitement from all the close encounters with theming really makes up for it and results in such a brilliant ride experience.









It was then time for the group to encounter Blue Tornado. As with the other bad rides, Nic, Ian and I sat out. On my way to grab some water I found this guy who we all posed with later...



It was then time for Mammut. I don't remember it looking this good to be honest. I really love the theming on this very standard mine train coaster. It turns a bland ride into something a bit more interesting.



Next up was Oblivion 2. It looked quite imposing over the area but just the white colour scheme is just a little too bland, even in person. There's not much theming around the ride apart from around the drop which is so fenced off you can't even really see it. Oh jeez, I have many problems with the design of this thing but I'll get on to more encouraging notes after some photos...



















Right, so lets enter the queue and straight into the big white tent. This part of the queueline is excellent, it's interesting, full of things to look at to distract you from what could essentially be a boring indoor queue. We were more than amused by the vibrating floor and the wind fans, despite annoying quite a bunch of people behind us in the queue.












Scanning


VIBRATE



You then leave the interesting indoor (and air conditioned) queue which has no one in it to one of the worst queueline structures ever. The B&Q-inspired staircase and bridge is horrendous. It's far too wide, allowing queue jumping to be a common thing, it's dull and it has no fans or anything to keep you cool. This is not helped by the extremely slow operations on the ride. After riding Oblivion many times I found this one to have a dreadful capacity, the queue moves at such a slow pace that by the time we reached the station I wasn't excited for it any more.





The tiny station sort of shows why the queue moves so slowly - baggage faff. Anyway, also not getting a chance to wait that extra bit more for front also ruins it for me a little bit. Front row is clearly where the action is at on these rides and not getting a chance to experience it ruins my entire opinion of the ride. I managed to get in second row but even then on the hold over the drop you end up looking forward more than down towards the hole (which I'll get to more in a mo). The drop is good and that little hill is kinda floaty fabness but then it blasts around that little helix and through the corkscrew and it's finished. I kinda had this problem with Krake too, they're over too soon, which is hilarious when I say that Oblivion is actually brilliant but there is a fundamental difference as to why this is the case.

Oblivion has that deep, ominous hole which you hang over before dropping into. Krake you have a ship, which while it looks fab, is no where near as effective. Then Oblivion 2 has a tunnel that you enter after the drop. With the original they got everything right, Dive coasters are extravagant drop towers. With these new ones they've kind of missed the point, tried something different and failed. I just don't understand why Oblivion 2 tries to copy the whole 'horror' of diving into a dark ominous hole which looks far too small for the ride vehicle to fit through and then not make it visible... to anyone. That fab theming which is being sucked into the hole - why is it being sucked into the ride support, not a hole in the ground that the vehicle drops into? So much of it doesn't make sense and I think overall it's a very poorly designed attraction which sort of upsets me because the rest of the park is so well planned out and designed.

[/rant]

Next up was a more gentle ride, the flying island. This does provide excellent panoramic views of Lake Garda and also Movieland....












Elaborately themed questionnaire point

We then headed onwards to Fuga da Atlantide which is so ridiculously themed. The scale of this thing amazes me every time.







There was quite a queue for the ride but they batch the ride pretty swiftly. The seats are odd, like plastic chairs attached to a boat with some seatbelts. However does make it feel very open which is pretty great. The drops are also great and the splashes, though they look like they'll drench you through, are actually quite dry, just provide a nice layer of moisture. After we got off Ian and Nic introduced Green into our lives, she was so judgemental - she belongs at a cafe on Old Compton Street in Soho.

We then decided to go back to Raptor for a re-ride. We made the single-rider queue quite long. Still an excellent attraction, so graceful and yet so entertaining.



We then ventured back over to Oblivion in the hope of a night ride. This is when we put into action a military style blockade during the B&Q warehouse segment of the queue to stop many peeps trying to queue jump. Some watched on at our ridiculous plotting and coordinated moving barricades and were kept amused for the duration of the queue. It was a brilliant group effort as we succeeded at stopping those evil doers. The ride didn't really get much better in my books, it's quite a meh ride for me. The Candy tunnel at night was pretty fab though with all of its lights going off.



Nic and Ian then proceeded to go in search of a kebab while the rest of us had some food from a barbeque place in the Western area. I had some tasty smiler sausages and the fab chips...



We then met back up again after some faff and went into the shop near the exit. It was then time to move on to our last CF hotel of the trip which was an industrial estate Ibis.




It was a great day with some really fun rides. It was a little upsetting that the park was so busy but it didn't ruin our day, just let us enjoy the park at a more relaxed speed.


Thanks for reading and sorry for my ludicrous Blivvy rant.

 

[Mike]

As everyone else has written such amazing trip reports in such a high amount of detail, with some excellent photos, plus my general lack of motivation to write a report myself, I've decided not to write a proper trip report...

Instead, I have tried to summarise each park in mostly terrible haikus, so enjoy!

Rainbow MagicLand
A park of two halves
Shadeless and bland in one half
Fab Shock in other

Oasi Park
Loads of kids parties
Very nice small city park
Pleasantly surprised

Cinecittà World
Cincinnati World?
Enigma worst show ever?
Water hard to find

Fantasiland
Wake up the ride op
Plus one. Disgusting toilet.
But two creds spited

Cavallino Mata
Spited by new cred
Did not try Willy Waffle
Hot, humid, tired

Leaning Tower of Pisa
Fraser is Playboy
Loads of folks Kung Fu fighting
I licked the tower

Mirabilandia
iSpeed neck breaking
Katun, back left, fantastic
Pork tasted rotten

Gardaland (Bonus double Haiku!)
Best park of the trip
SLC was fackin’ ****
Oblivion? Great!

Some of the ops here
Were incredibly awful.
Thanks Ian for pass!

Movieland Park
Had so much fun here
Nothing like it in the world
Death waiting to strike

Caneva Aquapark
Airtime slide insane
Such big adrenaline rush
Loved this place so much

Seriously, I had such a fantastic time on this trip, and the group was so laid back and relaxed.

In hotter countries I try to keep as hydrated as possible through drinking plenty of liquids, although this inevitably leads to me going to the toilet all the time. I do think I was more noticeable as I kept on asking if I could break away from the group and go, whereas others just disappeared for a few minutes! Sorry about that! I do also get very annoyed when you go to a theme park on a baking hot day, and they don't seem to sell any water anywhere... Cinecitta World was utterly terrible for this, with all their shops seemingly being closed and all the fridges in their open shops being empty!

My mood in Cavallino Mata was a bit grumpy, owing to me feeling very tired that day and the heat really getting to me, and that's why I barely went on anything.

Otherwise, I had an excellent time in Italy, and I cannot wait for my next CF International Live!

 

[peep]

Friday 26th

The last day of the Live was upon us and it was to be my first ever visit to Movieland Park (previous visits to Italy it was being spiteful). I was excited and scared of what lay ahead. Our day started with a healthy McDonalds breakfast. It was then onwards to the park. There weren't that many people around and it was obvious that those that were present were mainly going to be in the water park. We went over to the entrance of the park where we proceeded to have special ticket faff.











After some tickets were sorted out and some wine passed on to the lovely staff for sorting out discounted tickets for us we made our way in, just as the morning show was finishing.



As soon as we entered the park we knew the Intamin drop tower had to be experienced first. This would be my third one and I still absolutely cack myself on them. The noises it makes as you go up the tower create this feeling that it's unsafe and that you're about to die. Then all of it's loud horrible noises as it drops from the lift into the pre-drop zone, it's terrifying! I really liked that it played the Twilight music and the sign moves and some smoke goes off, icing on top of the already terrifying cake. The drop is then really intense and ridiculous, the forces as you go on to your back are almost as immense as the forces in a B&M flyer pretzel loop. The sudden stop is horrible though, as it the several movements after that. They're amazing, never fail to get my heart rate jumping, such a rare feeling these days - well, this day would prove to be quite the exception!











It was then time for the interactive shooty Terminator 2 show. I didn't really know what to expect, Nic was quite excited about doing it again and that either meant it was turdio or actually incredible. I was shocked to discover it was actually incredible. It had all the ingredients of a fab indoor experience, interactive game with 3D screen AND physical theming! FIRE! And other special secret ingredients. I absolutely loved it, I would love Universal to find it so they can do it on a proper ridiculous budget.







It was then time for some Magma 2.1. I was really looking forward to finally experiencing this attraction, I had heard so many great things. Usually hyped up attractions don't go so well for me so to say that my expectations were still blown out of the water is quite some achievement. I have never been so scared, laughed so hard and generally loved every minute of a single attraction. It's utter chaos from the moment you start and it just gets more ridiculous as time goes on. Poor Dan getting absolutely drenched at every opportunity was something that will forever be remembered.





Dan didn't care about getting wet any more...



As we were faffing around due to a large portion of the group being rather moist we caught the beginning of the Freddie Mercury tribute act which was, awful, but I felt sorry for him when everyone starting laughing. It was then time for yet another attraction I was terrified of, U-571. Unlike the u-boat attraction at Cinecitta World, this one had a reputation, one that made me contemplate not bothering. So glad I did though because there's nothing quite like it. Essentially you sit in a submarine which is being attacked leading to lots of water leaking in while you sit on these tiny benches which lean forwards and backwards. I basically just had a hose on my back for most of the time which was unpleasant and yet hilarious. Poor Peter got a second mass of water from another direction which led him to be drenched from head to toe. This park is actually mental.



Some of us then decided to do the Knight Rider themed speedboat attraction. This one came complete with life jackets! They basically just jet you around the stunt show lake, couple of spins here and there. It was fun but it was all over way too quickly.



We'd been in the park for a fair while now and we still hadn't ridden any creds! Madness. This was to soon be rectified when we did the go gator, the ride op was amused that a bunch of adult Brits wanted to ride it. He sent us around quite a lot and we didn't make it over the final hill a couple of times too for added amusement/embarrassment.



We then ended up going on the log flume of woe for some reason. I think we got more wet from the dripping of the troughs when you went under one.



It was then time for cred two, Brontojet....











It was really good fun actually. The first drop is really good. The only issue I had with it was the silly unbanked corner at the end before it hit the brakes. In that seating position it just ends up throwing you into metal, not fun.

Some of the group then rode the fluffy spinny flat ride. It looked a little dull afterwards, ride cycle was way too long.







It was then time for the group to split between doing the shows and the waterpark. Some of us decided to ride the Tomb Raider top spin before we did split ways. I stupidly decided I wanted in on the crazy action without watching the previous cycle. Oh GAWD. Well I'm glad I made everyone shift up a bit so Peter and I were out of the wet zone but jeez that did not save us from the hang time... so much hang time. When the ride was moving it was quite fun, if a bit too intense at times. It would then just hang us there upside down for AGES! I do not approve of hang time at the best of times but oh gawd, this was ridiculous and relentless.







Most of the group then waltzed over to the water park while Ian, Nic, Dan and I made our way back down to the bottom of the park for the BBQ restaurant. I had meat. It was really good quality actually and was cooked as we ordered which meant it wasn't just sat somewhere chilling out in the hope someone ordered one.


Sign does not lie, it is very unique



Nic's chips came in a box shaped to the Kitt superjet which we thought was awesome...



We then kicked off our afternoon of park shows with a small Flashdance performance. Literally got some blokes up on stage, dressed them up as builders and then the dancer did the famous routine and then that was it. Random, short and sweet.



We made our way over to Diabolik as the others informed us that it had opened! I loved all the random cut outs dotted around the area with button activated sound effects. The ride did look a bit plonked in an odd area though, from the massive metal bridges over the ditch to it being underneath the queueline for some of the waterslides.










THE bridge

I found the ride to be pretty standard, it was added to by watching Ian wince the whole way round. Its really fun that the seats face each other and the on board audio was a surprise and it also really added to the ride experience. Overall I think it's a decent addition to the park.

Some faff was occurring so Dan and I went to ride the very dull car ride. It was a bit sparse and unexciting.








I think the Powerpuff girls have had enough tanning time

We had some ice cream, chilled out and then went to see the magic show, The Illusionist. For some reason it wasn't until a clip of Michael Caine appeared from the movie, the Illusionist, that I clicked it was going to be a show based off the film rather than just a generic magic show. Did kinda mean I knew how it would end, however no one could have predicted one of the tricks to be given away by a broken hidden door on a box. There were some tesla coils going off which was a bonus. The stupidly loud music was a deterrent, now I love loud music but this was just loud to the point I was concerned for my hearing. Overall it got a meh.



We then caught the show, the Artist, yet again being just a small homage to the film of the same name. This meant that unless you've seen the film you would have absolutely no idea what was going on, overall it was random. It was then time for the big show, Rambow stunt show. It was pretty standard fare for a stunt show, starts off with lots of talking and picking out random people from the audience (urgh) before a generic stunt show. It was ok, there were some nice stunts scattered throughout the show.







We then caught the end of day show which was yet again, random. The park felt a little bit like Terra Mitica where you ride the rides in the morning and then spend the afternoon going from show to show, I kinda like that. Just a shame the shows are pants. Oh well, it was time for us to say goodbye to Movieland park and meet up with the rest of the group outside the waterpark. We then all sat around chatting about our week of crazy awesome times. It was unusual to be gearing up to say goodbye to the rest of the group knowing that I still had two days of Italy left. Still, we all got back into the hire cars and drove off to the airport where most of the group caught their flight home. Peter and Rach stayed in Lake Garda while Nic and I headed onwards to Venice.



I'll quickly sum up my thoughts on Movieland. I really liked the park, it's kinda awful but it has such stand out attractions that are so unique that it definitely places it on my list of places to go back to. I also really enjoyed our last day of the CF Live, it was full of so much laughter, puts a smile on my face just thinking about it.


Giggle

So, Nic and I dropped our hire car off at Venice airport and then we caught a coach into Venice. Coaches seemed to be every 20-30 minutes with several operators covering the 20 minute journey. Once we got off at the coach station we had to navigate for the first time around this crazy city. About 10-15 minutes later we managed to find our hotel. The hotel manager was waiting outside for us, he was casually talking to some other tourists though. He then talked to us for ages about how things at the hotel work etc before letting us catch a moment and check the room out.



After a quick freshen up we went back downstairs where he provided us with a map, marked up lots of tips about getting around etc (which was so ridiculously helpful as we had done zero prep for Venice) and informed us of worthwhile museums. He then locked up his office (he literally waited around for us, I felt a little bad) and gave us a small tour on his way home. He was fab. He was clearly so in love with Venice and just loved to talk to new people about it and show them his favourite places. We even came across a church (one of about a billion in Venice) which had a lovely classical music performance going on so we stopped briefly to appreciate that. He then went home and we went in search of a restaurant in one of the main piazzas near the university. It was all a bit of a whirlwind so it was nice to finally sit down, relax and reflect. After a nice meal we went back to the hotel and crashed after such an exhausting week.



Thanks for reading! I'll write up both of days of Venice in one go hopefully later this week.

 

[Peter]

In a bid to actually make some progress and upload some photos I’m gonna speed things up a bit and just upload some photos and my comments on the rides/parks.

Cinecitta World

It was really surreal to walk through the main street of a major themepark during its opening hours and being the only people there. It felt similar to being lead to ERT before park opening, except this was nearly midday! I really hope they pull a few more people in over the coming years otherwise the park is really going to struggle to sustain itself.

I very much enjoyed the park and it was clear how much love and attention some of the staff have for the place. Their ride line up is a good start but they really need to ensure they build upon and expand in the coming years to mark themselves as a top themepark in the country.

Altair

I was amazed by how beautiful the credit looked in its lovely fresh blue paint scheme and themed station and it’s an exciting drive as you pass it on the road into the park.

Onto the ride itself we were all a little surprised by just how open it feels without the OTSR and it certainly made the ride unique from that point of view. The heartline rolls are now the best part of the ride as you’re flung from side to side held in by only a small lapbar. The rest of the layout felt very much the same as Colossus at Thorpe, complete with Intamin rattle. A good solid ride made special by the lap bar restraints, but otherwise not much better than its original in the UK.

Darkmare

I loved this ride, the projection mappings inside and up the lift hill added to the atmosphere at the start and then followed the glorious S-bend turns that let out a little squee and whee at every turn. The drop itself was pretty decent and it turned out to be the best ride in the park.

No photos of the inside, so you can have one of the logo instead!

Aktium

I think this is probably the longest Mack Supersplash but otherwise rode no different – once you’ve ridden one you’ve ridden them all. They never get you particularly wet, providing only a light spray of water, which is perfect for me.

They had an elephant themed drop tower. I'm sure there must be some reasoning behind the choice of theme but I didn't get it. Either way a Intamin drop tower is pretty much the same wherever you ride them, but still great fun, a good thrill and a different perspective to see the park.

Cavillo Matto

This was quite a hidden little park. I had low expectations for this place so was very pleasantly surprised to see just how tidy and well kept the park was. It doesn’t have any standout coasters or rides (maybe that opinion might be different if the Togo had opened) so I wouldn’t expect anyone non-enthusiast to travel any sort of distance to visit, but as a local family park its perfect.

I loved its location in the trees, especially at the top of the drop tower where it looked like a jungle canopy with a togo standup sticking out in the distance. Quite surreal.

There isn’t a huge amount to say about the coasters here. Project 1 being the largest but is still a clone that you can ride at many parks across Europe – otherwise the rest are all kiddie credits. The big apple was a surprise as it came with a big cheese instead!

Porn ponies seem to be a staple of CF lives these days. I was disappointed when they ran out of ponies so I didn’t get a go. I wasn’t waiting for onel to return just to go around by myself! :lol:

Pisa in the afternoon was a great way to spend the remainder of the day. I love touristy stuff to tick the box, especially somewhere as famous as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Here is a picture of Ian taking a picture of Mike talking a selfie!

It was a shame that the other +2 nearby spited. I was optimistic that they might open post 4pm like the previous days park did, but it wasn’t to be. Instead it opens at 9pm. What kiddie park opens at 9pm on a weeknight – crazy!

So far the trip was off to a good solid start, but the “proper” parks were only about to start.

 

[mouse]

That's a brilliant photo!

 

[Zac]

Is it worth buying express queue jump tickets at Gardaland for the main rides? How much time would you say you actually save?

 

[Mike]

Definitely for Oblivion, as the queue is vile for that (well, the inside bit is fab, but the majority of it is standing on a bridge with full exposure to the sun).

Otherwise, we all went single rider for Raptor and it didn't take long at all. If you're desperate for front though, it's well worth buying a pass.

Nothing else in the park is worth buying Fast Passes for.