"Liva Italia" - Trip Reports

[Mark]

Its probably going to take me some time to put together a decent trip report and sift through the photos so for now I will say it was freaking fabulous and I loved the whole holiday. A massive thanks to all who were there!

 

[AJ]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwm-MY179Fs[/youtube]

 

[Rach]

Alright then, I should really start my trip reports.

First things first, I want to say a massive thanks to Ian for the flawless organisation and commitment to the trip, without you it would never have happened.
Another huge thanks to Stone Cold, Jerry, Tom and Marc for the driving around, really appreciated it.

And finally to everyone who went for making the trip something I will never forget. It was brilliant to see everyone again and to finally meet Jerry and the family and Jared.

I'll just summarise the Sunday before starting on Gardaland.
So Sunday... I left work at half 12 that morning and headed straight to the coach station for my 1:30 coach to Gatwick. 4 hours later and I'm at Gatwick and meet up with Mark, Marc, Jordan and Sam before going through security and getting some breakfast.
We soon met up with Nic and we boarded the flight to Verona. 2 hours later, we had landed in an overcast, drizzly Verona.
The 6 of us waited 4 hours in total at the airport for the Ryanair flight to land. When it did, it was off to the hire car place to sort them out and off to the hotel.

Once everyone was at the hotel, we got taxis to Verona for some food. Verona was stunning, if slightly busy and the food was decent too. After travelling through the night, I returned to the hotel that evening early with Nic, Jared and Raybould for some sleep!

So day number 2 arrived at it was off to Gardaland. Jumped into Jerry's car and soon enough we had arrived at the park.
The first thing you see is the awful SLC dominating the skyline

Once Ian had done his 'Ian from CoasterForce' thing, we entered the park. We were going to aim for the Squirrel first due to the throughput, but that area didn't open until later.
Raptor was teasing us, so with a half hour queue and everyone able to fit in the restraints, we headed for that.

One half hour queue later and we were on. I didn't know what to expect and went with minimal expectations, but I'm pleased to say it was better than that. The first drop and turn were fantastic, it was glass smooth and the near misses were brilliant, especially the water.

So we had some slush before trying to head down to the Squirrel. That area opened at 11, it was 5 to, so we waited. With a bit of toilet faff, we walked onto the Squirrel with a 1 minute queue.

What a vile contraption that was. I didn't find it rough, just pointless and entirely too much hang time.

Once everyone had had their dosage of Squirrel, we moved onto Magic Mountain, the Vekoma loopscrew.
I knew this was going to be vile and I weren't disappointed, it was rough and a good bit of head banging was had.

It's only redeeming feature was that it was quite pretty over the little island of water. Despite the riders having their brains hammered out of their heads.

The final section of the park didn't open until 12, so we done the first of many log flumes on the trip. We had a boat of gay, a boat of vadge and an assortment of others. It was quite moist, with two good drops. I did enjoy dodging the water despite Sue thinking it would get me.

By now the kiddie cred had opened, so we went and created the queue for that. It's essentially a giant big apple with 6 lifts. It was just simply a +1, so nothing special.
Some of the group done the top spin next, whilst I discovered that the majority of toilets in Italy are squat and drops, but if you look hard enough will find one that isn't.

Once all the group had got off the Top Spin, we headed over to the Tower.

It had an abysmal slow moving queue and once you cleared the bloody ALT sign, you were straight on the ride. Despite that queue, the ride did actually pack quite a punch, very good drop.

It was approached 2, when we would be meeting Bruno for some food and a chat. We had a toilet break and headed over to the restaurant.
We waited a little while, Sue took the opportunity to top up her tan

Soon enough Bruno arrived and we headed for the show area to have our group photo taken before heading back to the restaurant for some much needed food!
Lovely chat with some very nice nibbles and drinks before getting some proper food.

After food, we gave us some Enthusiast gift passes which were greatly received for the 4 big rides. We said our goodbyes to Bruno and headed to the shooty ride Ramses.

A very good dark ride and a sign of things to come for the rest of the trip. Couldn't really get the hang of the gun, but it was still a good ride that I enjoyed.

Those with cameras wanted to do the flying island. So we done that. It was the first time I'd done anything like it and enjoyed it, if not just for the spectacular views over Lake Garda and the rest of the park.

We still had two coasters to ride, and armed with our enthusiast passes, we headed for Mammut. The queue looked horrible in its cattle pen. But we were on in a flash.
Mammut is very well themed with the caves around the ride, but apart from that, it's quite bland and jolty. As much as I wanted to love it, I didn't and was just another +1.

The last coaster to get was the SLC named of Blue Fire. Thank god for the fast track. It really was awful, rough, jolty and gave me a headache. The extra helix was the smoothest bit as was cool how low it got to the hedges. It did really hurt though.

We got some slush next as it was right there. Awesome choice of flavours and actually delicious. We done the Rapids next which were supporting a good 40 minute queue.
The rapids were themed well but really were El Turdio!

Fuga del Cred was next.

I said before I went that I would ride it and go from there as to whether it was a cred or not. After riding it, I have to say in my own opinion I have counted it. The ride itself doesn't get you that wet - maybe a few drops of water. The drops were good though.

We broke up for an hour to get some food. Having located Raptor Kebabs we had some food there before meeting up at the tree of orange balls.

The tree of orange balls housed one of the worst mad houses I've been on. The effect wasn't as good as Hex and the one at Efteling, but there was some elements of it.
The park also had the tree of Penis

Before we re rode Raptor, we headed for this Pirate boat ride. Very well themed again, but nothing to write home about.

The final ride of the day was to be Raptor again.

For me, it rode even better than that morning and was really good at the back. Managed to catch the water spray on my arm which was amusing. Great ride, really great ride. Nice work B&M!

So all in all, I really enjoyed Gardaland, some really great rides and some not so great ones. Would certainly return again in the future.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

MOVIELAND

Since the park was only half an hour away and about five minutes down the road from Gardaland, we didn’t have to get up early which was nice. After breakfast, we got into the Popemobile, otherwise known as Marc and Mark’s epic car, and headed off to Movieland!

We waited around for the other cars to arrive.

And someone wrote TITS on Vadge’s back with sunscreen.

I thought these characters were really cute.

Soon enough we were off into the park.

Vadge and Ploddish looked particularly happy.

Our first stop was the Hollywood Tower, which looked like a death trap and made a lot of people scared, rightly so! Thankfully it wasn’t my first time on an Intamin First Gen, but it still gave me a scare.

We exited the ride only to stumble upon this fab show.

Once that was over, we headed to Magma 2, which we really had no clue about other than that it was a big car that rode around. It was one of the best surprises of the trip and a really epic ride! We definitely all had a lot of laughs, even those who got soaked!

The victims of Magma 2!

Then we went on Terminator 2, which was one of the most interesting shooters I have ever been on besides the fact that my gun basically stopped working halfway through.

And the winner is…

Yay!

Some of us stopped to get a treat, and I had an awesome ice cream.

We also stopped to see the Delorean.

First cred of the day… BRONT O’ RING!

We had a bit of fun catapulting shoes!

Then we made our way over to the DINO FLUME which was actually quite fun even though I don’t like water rides.

After that was the DINO SHIP. I don’t know the names of really anything so I just decided to add Dino to the beginning of it. Worst loading EVER! There was like twelve people on the ride or something, and apparently AJ was too tall to sit in the back, then Maddie was told to move, and then two other guys were told to switch seats.

Yay for Bronto Jet!

Some of us went on this awful thing next, which I ended up sitting alone on. NOT IMPRESSED. It did have really cool hairy seats though.

After that, the majority of us went on the submarine ride, which as Mark pointed out, was obviously a huge safety hazard, but fun nonetheless.

Then came the Monorail thingy, which was really pointless but still relaxing.

It gave nice views, too.

We could see a good bit of the park from the Monorail as well.

Along with a bird’s eye view of Magma 2!

Some people decided to ride the Top Spin, but I opted out because I thought the riders got wet, so I opted to ride the CARS!

After people came off the Top Spin, we went in a haunt which was actually really long and really well done! I don’t have any pictures or anything but I don’t suggest missing it if you go in the near future!

We had a quick bite to eat, and then went our separate ways, some to the waterpark, some to shows, and some to the hotel. Myself, Brad, Mark, Marc, and Gavin headed back early. First the four of them decided to ride the tower again!

After a few hours, we were at the fancy Novotel!

Later in the night, a group of us went into Bologna for an AMAZING meal with the best pasta everrrr. After that, some of us stayed out for drinks and some went back to call it a night.

PS- I will post photos of cities and stuff in a separate post eventually.

 

[Rach]

You can have Movieland from me as well.

Another reasonable start time and I jumped in Tom's car and was soon on the way to the park. Before I knew it, we had arrived.

The queue for the waterpark looked horrid, but there weren't many people heading around to the actual theme park. We were soon in and suitably loaded up with park maps, the first thing we noticed was the Intamin 1st gen Tower crying out to scare the living daylights out of us.

So we headed over to it. We created the queue and soon enough we were all **** ourselves. It was as horrible as we thought. The drop itself was fine, but once you were on your back and hit the breaks it banged, clanked its way back to the station. An experience, and one I don't fancy reliving again just yet. The dropping letters when the car was about to drop were a good touch though.

The very camp show had took a lot of peoples interest, so we watched that before we decided to go on Magma 2.
I have no photos from this and had no idea what the hell to expect from it. When the car returned and the riders were soaked, I had no idea what was in store.
But what was in store was bloody fantastic. Loads of laughing, loads of screaming and ducking from the water and a lot of gobsmacked looks as to what came next.
Brilliant ride and one of the major highlights of the trip. I weren't the only one to come off with one very wet left side of my body.

We done Terminator next, another very good italian shooty ride. The vibrations were a bit extreme though and the pre shows were a bit turdio, but once in the actual room it was very good. I enjoyed it.

We headed down towards the coasters and the rest of the park. We stopped for a snack and pee break before and headed down to our first coaster.

So first stop was the Bront'o'Ring, a Go Gator where adults could ride. It was amusing watching us all trying to squeeze two of us into the seats. It was amusing though, especially the groans as it kept going around and around.

We done the log flume next. A strange design for a log flume, but surprisingly moist. I made the stupid mistake of standing on the bridge over the last drop and got ridiculously wet feet. Stupid mistake when wearing canvas shoes.

Some of the group then done the Pile of Ship whilst I attempted to try and dry out my socks! It didn't look like a decent one anyway.

We done the final coaster in the park, Bront'o'Jet. A relocated coaster from Lightwater/Loudoun. It was actually pretty decent right up until the final breaks. Smashed my arm off the side of the car in surprise. Still decent though.

We headed back over to the furry cups. That cycle went on entirely too long in my opinion and I was quite relieved to get off the thing.

The next thing we done was the Submarine Simulator thing. A very good ride, but I did come off drier than what I expected I would, even with my broken, backwards poncho. The water in the room before the submarine got me wetter. Those steps were really bloody slippery, but it was still a good ride. Waste of money for my €1 crappy poncho!

Next up was the slow, but very scenic monorail. Showed some great shots of Magma 2, the coaster and over Lake Garda.

We headed back over to the front of the park and some of the guys done the Top Spin and the walk through. I didn't fancy either, so sat in the shade for a while.
Once everyone was back, we headed over for some food before splitting up for the rest of the day.

I have no photos of the waterpark for obvious reasons, but I will do a quick summary.
The waterpark was well worth the extra €5 on top of the park entrance.

We started with the crazy river in which I got really stuck and lost the rest of the group. After about 10 minutes, I finally got to the bottom to an applause from the rest of the group. :lol: Was good fun though.

I think we done the racing slides next, ended up going down that sidewards and rolling into the pool. That was an experience lol.

The rest of the group apart from me, Jared, Christine and Aidan done the water jump. That thing looked violent. But the splash Mushy created was huge!! The rest of the group, not so much.

The airtime slide was next, I stood out and watched one dingy valley and another get stuck on the top of the hill. After that, Sue, Jared, Dave and Mushy said bye and headed back for the hotel. The rest of us stayed on at the park. We went into the wave pool whilst some of the group done the bigger, vertical slides.
We met back up and done the smaller slides that really required some serious lying down to get you to move anywhere.

I decided that I did want to do the airtime slide after all, and I'm bloody glad I did. Thanks Jerry for coming along with me.
Jesus christ that thing was insane. The drop looks terrifying from the very top when you're dangling over it, then you can't really see anything through the amount of water. Good bit of airtime and into the pool.

That was the day done for us then. So we headed back to the hotel. Movieland was a surprise, I thought it would be a dump, but it was actually really good and I enjoyed both the park and the water park. Stuff like Magma 2, Submarine Simulator and the crazy airtime slide were highlights.

Back at the hotel that night, we had a meal at the hotel and have several green pistachio sandwiches and a number of napkin chickens made for me before calling it a night.

 

[Ollie]

What made the log flume a strange design?
Good reports so far

 

[10WaTT]

What she meant by strange is that, it was double layered for alot of it and just a really different design in terms of trough and layout I guess? Plus it has extra trough's to carry water along to the different parts of the ride.

 

[marc]

It was a really good log flume tbh as it was hard to see what was going to happen next.

 

[Rach]

^^ ^ That's exactly the reasons. It was just different to what you see over here. But it was a great log flume.

May as well post up my Mirabilandia report whilst I'm here.

So after an hours drive in Stone Cold's car, we arrived at the park. You can see the park from quite a way off and it looks great as there is nothing else around the area.
We parked up and waited for half hour until our ERT.

Some guys from the park let us in just after half 9, looking back at the others standing behind the shutters was quite a satisfactory moment as we skipped our way over to Katun.

With 24 of us, there was adequate room on one train for us all. So we got on and cheered, whooped and screamed our way around the ride. I rode near the front first on the first ride, then near the back on the second. The back was far more intense than the front, but I did prefer it on the front. However, something to note is that as we kept going round, each lap seemed to get worse.
I'd had enough after 5 rides, on the final ride, I rode on the front and really enjoyed it. The best ride of the 5.
It was also satisfying to be able to see the park gates from the lift and seeing all the people still stood behind the shutters.
I enjoyed Katun, it was forceful and enjoyable. But Mamba still beats it.

So the ERT ended, and we agreed to head straight for iSpeed due to the throughput. But before we could even get away from Katun. Master Thai was showing itself off whilst testing.
Spite...

On the way to iSpeed, we stopped off at the first of three kiddie creds. So we managed to get on that before anyone saw us. Another +1 for the count and nothing special at all. I don't think I was the only one who was glad that had just the one lap.

So over we went to iSpeed. The area surrounding the ride imo is brilliant. Good racing theme with all the flags and the redness.

Just incase you forgot what park you were at!

So anyway... iSpeed. A nice 20ish minute queue was ideal in that cattle pen of awfulness. I absolutely LOVED iSpeed, really took me by surprise. Incredible launch, and the speed is retained. Inversions were smooth and well paced and I just overall loved it! So much so, it went straight to #3 on my top 10!!

The next thing we done was the car themed Log Flume. The weather at this point was starting to turn cloudy, but by no means cold.
The queue was about 40 mins in one of the tightest queue lines created! The last drop looks dry, so it gives a false sense of security that the ride is dry!
My god no! The boat I was in, I sat at the front and on the first drop I just got it dumped on me. Head to foot - soaked. The final drop was indeed dry though.

We walked around the back of the park, had a quick toilet stop and headed onto the 2nd of the kiddie creds. It was a Vekoma Junior with evil brakes! Owch, again just another +1.

At this point, we decided to call lunch to get some energy back into us. The Italians love self service restaurants and are actually priced well! We enjoyed a nice leisurely lunch before heading over to the Mouse for another +1 cred.
On the way over, I wanted to get a photo of the splash from the chute thing. I got the splash alright and Stone Cold/Jared trying to get each other soaked.

So we met up at Pakal. Ended up waiting for Mysterious Sue and then headed into the queue for Pakal. A glorified mouse themed to a mine.
The queue which looked awful moved surprisingly quickly. Think we were on in less than 15 mins. Anyway, the ride was not as bad as normal ones with the turns being not so violent. The brakes however were evil!

To clear the creds up, we done the final one that was open. The Powered thing. Yet again, another +1. But I do regret sitting next to Raybould and getting squished as it slowed down. Owwie. Want to see that video Raybould to see just how much I got squished!

With the creds now sorted. It was time to see what else the park had to offer us. By now, it had gone very cloudy and cool by Italian standards.
So what better to do than the Rapids! Whilst standing in the queue, I was a little apprehensive seeing how wet people who were wearing clothes and not swimwear were coming off.
Honestly, it was one of the best rapids I've been on! Soaked to the skin from the little drops in the ride and the fountains.

Some of the guys wanted to do the Haunted walk-through, so we sat and waited. And we waited a long time... so much so, it began to rain.

A few of us done the drop tower that we had walked past that morning on the way to Katun. The drop side actually started with a little shot before climbing at a rapid pace. Good how the towers are next to each other, so you can see the riders of the other tower.
Not the best S&S tower, but pretty decent and it killed sometime.

Once we'd done that, we sat and waited some more...

By then it started to rain so we went and hid under some shelter whilst we waited some more. Some of us then gave up waiting and had a look around the tat shop. They had lots of tat, but nothing to my interest apart from some awesome looking Disney stuff (Disney at Mirabilandia?!!!), but for a bag, I weren't paying €44!

Anywho, went back to the shelter, and waited a little more for the others. Soon enough after that, the rest of the group returned. After over an hour and a half!!

Not wanting to sit around any longer, we headed over to Reset, the shooty ride. On the way, Sue had to wear the bag of shame! And Nic had a picture with the park mascot Fanny.

So over to Reset. It's down towards the front of the park, but towards the side in its own little area. The theming around the area is amazing though! Hopefully, something like this, but even better will be done for Swarm.

Reset was a very good dark ride. Some awesome affects including the spinny cars that you can control or the ride just span it for you at some stages and made you dizzy. Really good ride!

It was raining persistently by this stage. But the rides were still open. Got into the queue to ride iSpeed again as by now we had done everything we wanted to and an announcement was made in Italian that made a lot of people groan and leave the queue. The ride had shut due to the weather, so after talking it out for a while, we left the queue and headed for shelter.

Whilst in the shelter, it was agreed that we should head for the hotel seeing as it was a 2 and a half hour drive away. But first, we watched this kid on a DDR machine and I don't think anyone had seen someone move that quick on one of them. He had quite an audience too.

So we called it a day there, we'd done everything we wanted to and slightly damp we headed off to the cars.
Mirabilandia was the park I was most looking forward to, but I was a bit disappointed. Maybe it was because of the general tiredness of the group or a lack of decent rides apart from Katun, iSpeed & Rio Bravo I don't know, but something was missing. I liked the park, but was disappointed.

This was then the night where we got stuck in that traffic jam with some idiotic drivers! So that 2 and a half hour driver turned into a good 3 and a half to 4 hours. We amused ourselves by playing guess the CFer from music and longing for something to eat and a piss!
It was a relief to get to the hotel and see that everyone else had made it safe and sound.

 

[peep]

Fantastic trip report guys! Want MOAR!

Shame to hear about katun being too much after 5 goes but glad to hear you loved iSpeed and Reset

Look forward to more reports peeps.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Finally I have a new phone cable, so I can upload some photos other than on fb! I know Ian is itching for more trip reports, so I’ll give it a whirl. Please forgive my crappy photos (my camera is just pants) and the order of rides which I have now forgotten. My trip consisted of Venice, Verona (including the longwinded opera), the Live and then Rome. I’m only gonna talk about the actual Live though, so for the rest of my photos please go to:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 8bc&type=1

Firstly of course, a big thank you to Ian for organising the trip – I don’t think it could have run any more smoothly. Thanks to all the drivers who took me to places - so I could sit lounging in the back enjoying a Peroni . Finally, a big hi to everyone I met this time round, including Jerry, Christine, Aiden, Jared and Tom (who I’ve met before, but never really got to know - which is crazy coz you’re fab!) As always, it’s the people that make the Lives, and I love you all x

Day minus 1 - Verona

We all met as a group in the car park at Ibis Verona. After a quick check-in, we headed off into town. Those of us who had been around during the day showed the others the sights including the main square and Juliet’s supposed balcony. Then we looked for a restaurant that would take 25 boisterous CFers. Finding that no one would take us, we split up into those doing the opera, and those that weren’t. I was in the opera group and had a nice meal followed by copious amounts of wine and way, way too much time spent watching fat women sing to horses. Verona arena was beautiful though, and I’m glad that I did this little bit of culture with you guys.

A.I.D.A Dance to the beat of my gong! </in joke>

Day 1 - Gardaland

I’d been to Garadaland before, but it was mainly a credit run and I didn’t get to appreciate the park. This time round, and with the company of CF, I really enjoyed it, and for me, this was the best park of the trip by far. It’s also the least-Merlin of the Merlin parks I’ve been to, and a bit like Disney in some respects (high levels of theming, train that runs round the edge of the park, flowerbeds shaped into the Gardaland name…)

(ok, so I may have raided some of my photos from last year when I actually used a real camera - so sue me!)

First thing I remember was poor Christine falling over in the water. Ohh dear! What a start to the Live! So we went over to Sequoia Adventure in case that had a long queue early on, but found that part of the park was closed until 11. We opted instead to go check out Raptor. I wasn’t expecting much after Jake’s critical review, but am happy to say, I was thoroughly impressed. Ok, so it’s not very intense, but it has great theming. One word to describe Raptor: Fun! I love the fact you’re queuing in a cage, then ride the beast that’s escaping. The station is grey and industrial with pretend guns aimed at the beast. The cars are themed green all the way along, and when you set off, you burst through a small slit in the wall of the station straight up the lift hill – it really feels like you’re escaping the cage. Then there’s the constant leg-chopping and near misses of trees, supports, track, bent-back pieces of metal, and water guns. Amazing!!! I love it! Only drawback for me was that I didn’t like the colour of the track – grey. I think it could have been green like the beast, or camouflage maybe? I sat on the outside first and the inside later, both times on the left. Outside was better, but the inside was still pretty good. Apparently the back isn’t so good though. Overall, not a top 10 in terms of performance, but definitely in my unofficial top 10 of coasters I love for no other reason than 'because I do'.

Raptor <3

We minced over to Sequoia Adventure, the wild mouse on its side. The gays planked on some cows along the way .

Gays planking on a cow

I LOVE Sequoia Adventure! Did I mention that while we were there at all, lol? At least Jared agreed with me (you’re good for something haha). If you like Slammer, then you will love this ride. I don’t really think it’s much of a coaster, but the hang time is brilliant, and hang time always makes me giggle. Plus the palaeontologist in me got excited about the use of a latin plant name <3. People were complaining about the lack of theme in this area, but I thought it was great. So they plonked Sequoia Adventure in the middle of another ride, but then they went round at great effort, making every damn support look like a tree trunk! Also, I love the way those two rides are so close together – there’s so much going on in that space.

Then it was time for Magic Mountain, the Vekoma corkscrew. It was rougher than I remembered, but not too bad. Not much else to say about it really, except it had the boob-unfriendly restraints. Some people found it intense. Personally, I didn’t. The Fanta advertising ticked me off a bit. Meh.

Sequoia Adventure and Magic Mountain

Tree trunk-themed supports on Magic Mountain

Awoooga Awoooga!!!

Flog Lume (Colorado Boat) next. I don’t really remember much about it. I think we did a gay boat, a vadge boat and a fat boat, as was to become the theme of the trip. Then a +1 on Ortobruco Tour. Mushroom tried to take a POV of me and Jared for most of the way round, which was at first funny, and then annoying! It really is quite long, and we spent the ride counting ‘launches’ from the wheels round the track. Then I think it was the Top Spin, with the original name of Top Spin! It was quite good actually. Finally, we had time to kill before lunch, so we went on the Flying Island for some epic views over the park

Lying Fisland

Beautiful views of Lake Garda (which we sadly didn’t see much more of on the trip)

Blue Tornado and Rapidos di Volcanology

Raptor and Mammut

Sequoia Adventure and Magic Mountain

Then came the 7 minute batching of drop tower Space Vertigo! Come on! I seem to remember it being that bad last time I was here as well. Think they need to sort it out! Pointlessly small drop tower that’s supposed to be inside at the top, but you can still see down – random!

Drop tower of why?

Then it was time to go and meet the amazing Bruno <3. He had so much enthusiasm for Gardaland it was infectious. What a great guy! First off we minced to some fountains for a photo that didn’t happen, then minced over to the kiddy theatre to have our pics taken with the park mascots awwww. The tiger bowed to me ekk! Bruno then took us to the café where he’d set aside some tables with crisps and drinks (he’s been trying to promote relations with enthusiasts, and it’s working!) He gave us a talk about the park and its future (sod off haters, I love these goony bits), before giving out vouchers for free food! Win! Apparently he’s leaving, so best of luck to him. He also gave us some fast passes for Mammut, Blue Tornado, Magic Mountain and Raptor <3 x

CF luncheon
(sorry the photo didn't come out very well - you'll have to take my word that it's us)

After lunch, we headed to Rameses I think – the shooty ride. The outside of the building is bloody EPIC, with crumbling Egyptian statues falling away to reveal a terminator-style machine underneath. The ride was pretty decent. Shooters aren’t really my thing though. We did a competition to give out cuddly Prezzemolo toys (the park mascot) and extra fast passes, courtesy of Bruno. Then it was off to finish the creds!!!

The Mummy meets The Terminator

This was also nearby – we didn’t do Spongebob, much to the sadness of Nic. It looked cool though – apparently you could walk round the top somewhere.

The Vekoma mine train Mammut was soooo much rougher than I remember. Ouch. Someone said it felt like it has square wheels, really was bumpy. For an enthusiast it was a bit lacklustre, but I reckon this is a really good ride for youngsters – not too violent, with a couple of good drops and some decent scenery. I love the way you get a fleeting glimpse of the mammoth first time round, then as you keep looking for it again, it appears right before you. An excellent layout. Don’t sit in the front though – you see naff all behind the huge chimney of the train. We missed the queue due to passes, but I remember this being the worst queue in the park, with no shade for most of it. Worth noting if anyone goes back.

Now I really like Blue Tornado and have suffered a lot of grief in the past for it. Yes it’s a Vekoma SLC. Yes it beats you up a bit. But its lift hill makes me so nervous for some reason – it’s really high, and the ride is intense and flowing and has some interesting elements. I’ve ridden it in the dark before, which was even better. A big thumbs up from me.

Blue Tornado - my favourite SLC

Then we did the Jungle Rapids I think. This had a deathly queue, but was worth it as they are pretty decent. Themed around a giant volcano for extra geology creds! After the rapidos, we were all getting a bit hungry again, so we split for dinner. Quite a lot of us stuck together and after trying about a million places, found a boat-themed restaurant. We probably saw the best theming at this time, including the brilliant Wild West area with its own church, water well thing to fill up your bottle, train and lots of shops. I love how all the game stalls are squished in here and not cluttering up the rest of the park (I wonder how long Merlin will take to change that), and how this area gets really busy late at night with people eating and drinking and lots of music. We also walked past the other entrance, with Ikarus (the spiny ride which we didn’t go on, but is actually quite good if you like that kind of thing). That part of the park is more traditionally European and really pretty with trees, flowers and a carousel. Back to the boat-restaurant – it was fabulous inside! Lots of wood and goony theming for me to drool over. There were actors doing tricks as well, getting people to throw balls into their really tall hats. Nice. Very different to other Merlin parks!

Richard then alluded to a ride called I Corsari. It’s a life-size galleon next the boat-restaurant, which I assumed was a walkthrough. We had time to kill so went on board. Firstly, the ship isn’t used at all – you just go inside and down some steps. Then down more and more, until you are right under the park. You find yourself in a humongous station/harbour aka Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean/Efteling’s Vliegende Hollander. The dark ride that followed was brilliant. It had animatronic pirates, obligatory ships with cannons, people being hung, dodgy looking parrots, jungles with mist and eerie lights, and an amazing underwater section using blue lights and sharks on poles that were really quite effective. Also, the Ominous Octopus made an appearance. The ride is HUGE and must go under half the park! Such a surprise! The exit involved two escalators up to the surface – giving the impression that we were about to emerge into a Debenhams!

We ran to meet the rest of the group by the tree of orange balls, which turned out to be a kids play area and a mad house combined. We queued for the mad house called Albero di Prezzemolo. It was all in Italian, but I think it was something to do with being shrunk. Or going back in time. Or maybe both. Anyway, it involved standing in a lift with a giant face of a wizard above which became smaller as the lift descended – a bit bloody scary if you ask me. The spiny room part was a bit naff and out of alignment, and the laser pointer wizard’s face on the ceiling was so ridiculous, we all burst out laughing. Give me a haunted tree any day!

Prezzemolo’s crazy tree of orange balls

Those of us who had been on I Corsari bigged it up and dragged the rest of the group there for the surprise. I think everyone liked it just as much as us. We had left the big, wet ride until the last, and mooched over to Fuga Da Atlantide to cries of ‘such a cred’. Although it wasn’t a cred. It was, in fact, a giant log flume. Haters gonna hate! The queue for Fuga Da Cred was long, but improved by palm trees that sprayed mist over everyone. If I’m ever rich, I’m getting me some of those babies! We also discovered that Taylor is damn good at spelling! Who'd have thought it? A whole section of the park had been made for this one ride, with a grand entranceway, sculptures of Neptune and dolphins jumping through hoops, a giant sea serpent, and humongous golden boobs (seriously, wtf?). It included a huge viewing area which Ian made use of while the rest of us got soaked. It’s what Thorpe’s Tidal Wave could be with about 50 times the budget and some actual imagination.

Such a cred! Or is it?

We ran back for a last go on Raptor. It had warmed up by the afternoon and was even better than before. Despite getting in an inside seat this time, I still loved it. Wish I’d got to go on the front. Ohh well, an excuse to come back I guess. <3. Drivers and extra fast pass winners got a well-earned bonus ride, and then it was time to say goodbye to Gardaland. On the way out we saw a bush that was shaped like a penis. Amusing. Then back to Ibis Verona for some well-earned sleep.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Day 2 – Movieland Studios (Canevaworld)

I had my first proper nights sleep in about a week, and felt full of beans for day 2 of the Live. Movieland is a great little park, and there’s more than enough entertainment to last the day with all the rides and shows. It’s not cred-heavy, and so it’s one of those parks where CF could relax and have a right old laugh. If I were forced to pick, this would be my favourite day of the Live due to all the craziness. Now I’d been to Fake-Universal-Land before, and had warned people of the dubious health and safety in place. We’d also been warned somehow that err, the mafia may be helping to run it and help it pass certain safety tests that it shouldn’t (just a rumour of course, but people were a bit nervous)!

To set the mood, someone wrote ‘tit’ on Vadge’s back in sun cream outside the entrance…it was going to be that kind of day… First up was Hollywood Tower – an old first generation drop tower. I don’t particularly like drop towers at the best of times, but I’ll not sit one out while my friends are having fun, so swallowed my fear and got in. It resembled some kind of torture device where you sit in a cage. To make things worse, the whole thing shook as you rocketed down, the cage ending up on its back *shudder*. Needless to say, as it got to the top, I was bricking it. I didn’t even notice the well-themed sign pretending to fall off. After all that worrying, the descent wasn’t as bad as I’d thought, and I was glad that I got to try one of these old dames before they all disappear.

With that out the way, we caught the end of a show/dancing thing. It was pretty bad with lots girls in short skirts and dodgy colour wigs shouting Movieland, but the glitter canons pleased all, and much fun was had draping each other in giant glitter strands.

Then I think it was me that called for Magma 2 as I remembered it being FAB. It’s a backstage tour in the back of a lorry that goes through pretend movie sets with fire, explosions and lots of water. As I’m a kind friend, I told Nic that she might like to go at the far left back, to get the most of the effects – completely forgetting of course that it’s the seat that gets most drenched *mahahahaha*. Needless to say, she was soaked, as the left side gets wet on both the way in and the way out. The ride also has a section where you sit inside a garage for 10 minutes with closed doors, while the lorry’s engine keeps running – slowly gasing you – nice! The best bit is definitely when the lorry stalls, and rolls back into the huge pond, soaking the back row. Although, mainly soaking Nic *grins evilly*! I would also add that I got the seat at the far back right, with a big space next to me instead of other seats. As the lorry went over bumps, I got huge airtime and went sprawling out of my seat into the gap. Awesome!

After comparing levels of wetness, we headed for Terminator 2 ‘stand and shoot a screen’ ride. It’s a bit crap because the guns don’t really work, and I spent most of the time shooting myself in the head, shooting Ed, or shooting a light fitting. Ohh well. Jerry won and got a John Conner arm band as a reward. To be honest, it wasn’t that bad theming-wise - it did have real robots and fire, but after seeing the real Universal version, nothing was going to compare. Coming out we saw a model of Johnny 5 yay! I think this was also when the gays saw Audrey, complete with coffee cup, and ran for a photo

Childhood revisited

Hepburn and gays

People began to get itchy feet for creds, but this park only had two. First up was Bront-o-Ring, a spruced-up Go-Gator with a fake Flintstone’s Dino on the front. The ride op was epic and sent us round about a million times, pretending to slow it down to stop and then shooting us off again. I re-rode with Jerry and co while the others decided to catapult my flip-flops around in the water cannon launcher! The second cred spited some, as they discovered they’d already ridden it as Viper at Lightwater Valley. BrontoJet as it is now known, has horrendous seats that mean two people have to sit on top of each other. It also has the most painful last corner EVER. I got off and immediately ran round to catch the faces of the last train as it careered into the brakes. Fun times.

Then we did the sad-looking log flume Troncsaurus. I played ‘count the number of repaints through the chipped boats’ and sang along to the stupid dinosaur music. Geology cred!!! We went down the drop singing our hearts out to Celine Dion, and after getting out of the vadge boat, I hovered on the bridge to watch the others singing along. Stupidly, I somehow forgot I was right in line for the splash, and got totally and utterly drenched along with Mouse AT!

More geology creds next with the pile-of-ship themed to a pterodactyl, BC 10 Airlines (see what they did there?!) The bars kept refusing to close, and it got funnier and funnier every time we had to move about in the rows to re-balance the ship! After all that, the ride was a bit crap, but we had a few fun shout-backs, and got a great view of Lake Garda (or at least our side did). I especially approved of the real stone-walled queue line.

Before we left the kiddy area, we had a quick go on the spiny ride Oktopus (sort of an elevated breakdance/swizzler, on some really weird cycle). This was a really enjoyable ride, and we all laughed at the Ominous Octopus in the middle, and at the ‘muff cars’ that were lined with fur on the outside for no apparent reason. Owain and I were also really goony, and enjoyed being able to see the internal mechanism of the ride. Awoooga!

All the day I’d been bigging up the submarine simulator U-571. I still stand by my judgement that this is the best ride in the park, even though I know no-one else agrees with me. Where else are you going to be a Nazi, shooting down US troops to capture the enigma machine? It’s insane! Firstly, you walk into a big arena with a sort of half-size real submarine in a tank of water, in the dark. They then start firing water cannons and jets at you in a pretty convincing simulation of gunfire. You are ushered to run across the dangerously wet floor down into the submarine hatch, meanwhile people are still shooting. It’s absolutely TERRIFYING. Inside you have to squish in and sit on pretend torpedoes. Then the door is sealed shut as the thing tilts and shudders and fills with water. To be fair, I think there was less water this time round, and they had replaced the reusable full sou’westers given out to guests with pay-for ponchos. Jared felt my full wrath at this point when he decided to pull back my poncho hood and get my hair wet. I was not impressed, and yes, I will hold a grudge against you forever *RAGE* :X

So I got a lot of abuse for dragging people on the submarine, but it was NOT me who decided to go on the piece of crap monorail Back to the Backstage. It’s only redeeming features were its ability to show excerpts from Back to the Future in the queue, and to play Jump in the Line as we went round (which I sang along to, much to Stone Cold’s annoyance). The commentary was all in Italian, but you could see it was pants anyway. The cars were so diddy, they only took two (very squished) people at a time

View of Brontojet and the log flume from the monorail monorail

The Top Spin was next, Tomb Raider: Time Machine. This is an awesome ride that moves sideways in three dimensions, as well as going up and doing the usual spinning. It has a good theme (five giant swords move around and select which cycle you’re going to get each time) and there’s water and fire too. Unfortunately we got a very, very naff cycle.

Next to the top spin was The Horror House walkthrough. I don’t really care much for horror mazes, but this one was quite good. It’s very dark all the way round, so you go very slowly and the people who leap out at you are more of a surprise. Well, most normal people would go slowly in the dark. In our case, Richard was up front, behind poor Aiden, who he kept yelling at to move quickly. We overtook two sets of bewildered punters, thankfully dashing through the hanging bodybag conveyor/Freddie Cougar section which is actually quite scary.

We dashed off for a quick lunch (the only thing I could find to eat was a hotdog which greatly offended me – that is NOT food eurk) and then we split for the afternoon. I joined the group for the Aquapark, while the others stayed on and watched some shows. Poor Richard didn’t want to come to the waterpark, but as we needed a second driver, he offered to hang about on his own and wait for us to finish – thanks hun, that was AWESOME of you *hugs*

The Movieland Aquapark is pretty damn good. It has a pool with wave machines, a volcano that erupts every hour, a slide in the dark, vertical slides, rapids-style slides with rings, slides with bumps, slides to race, slides that shoot you up in the air so you loose your pants, bubbling hot-tubs, and most importantly, the dingy slide of death!!! I had been to the park before, but all my friends chickened out of the dingy ride, so I was very excited to have a go this time round. Basically, you go down a near vertical drop, not touching the floor until you hit the bottom. Then you are pushed up a huge slope and down the other side, hopefully remaining in your dingy throughout. Lots of people were too light and valleyed in the middle, having to be rescued. Heavy people however, hit the bottom of the first drop, and bounced right up in the air, loosing all contact with the slide a good metre or so beneath – far above the safety of the sides! I went on with Jared and it was EPIC!!!!!!!1111!! Mushy and Dave went on and I swear they actually flew! Amazing! I left early with a few others in Richard’s car, while Tom’s car stayed for more watery fun. We stopped at a supermarket on the way home, and bought Ian a little present in the form of the vocal delights of Titti Biancho – I hope she brings you much joy Mr Bell

That night we were staying in an awesome looking Novotel with a pool and everything. Nice one Ian! Most of us went into Bologna for food (I had a bit of a rant about leaving some of the others who were still at the waterpark. Yeah, sorry about that. Guess sometimes I try too hard to please everyone). Bologna was lovely. Much less touristy than Verona, much more authentic Itlaian, very cheap, and fabulous food. Best meal of the trip IMO - I had some aubergine lasagne that was to die for. NOM! Brad, Taylor, Richard and I stayed to have a few drinks in town, including something called Elephant beer, and the most alcoholic and vile Cosmo I've ever encountered. We played I Have Never. Let's leave it there shall we...

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Day 3 – Mirabilandia

I awoke very, very excited on Day 3. This was what I’d been looking forward to all trip - ERT on a proper B&M and a chance to go on the lovechild of Rita, Stealth and an F1 car! I seem to remember there being a lot of faff from the park in the morning. I’m not going to complain too much as they were kind enough to give us ERT, but it seemed to take ages to get us through, and by the time we got in, a large queue of randomers had formed around us trying to push past.

Faff

Anyway, we got onto Katun and spirits were high. None of us could wait to get some B&M loving. Katun was pretty damn impressive. It goes on forever and is extremely forceful in places, with a huge number of inversions to delight. The first drop is great, especially in the back right seat as you get flung out sideways. The second drop after the MCBR is great fun too. I enjoyed riding in the front, but the back was way, way more intense – in fact, a little too intense for me. In the end, I think I preferred the second row from the back as it was a little less jerky (I got a small amount of whiplash at one point). Overall a cracking coaster, although it didn’t wow me in quite the same way as Nemesis or Black Mamba – I think its openness let it down for me – I prefer a B&M to be engineered more organically into the landscape. A definite top 10 though <3. We had 5 or 6 goes in total, although some people began to sit out for the last few. I was mocking them at that point, but may have spoken too soon…more on that later. We also got way too goony over wheel assembly covers. Awoooga!

Katun’s cobra roll <3 <3

After the joys of Katun, we dashed over towards iSpeed. On the way we took in a kiddy cred Leprotto Express, based on a rabbit in a giant vegetable patch of carrots. With a slight hangover, increasing amounts of sunshine and the after effects of Katun creeping up on me, it felt a bit like I was on acid! We got to see Matser Tai around this area too, which sadly wasn’t open that day! It was however, in testing just to spite us further The layout and interaction of the trains looked good, but there was minimal theming. Some trees wouldn’t have gone amiss – just something to make it look like it hadn’t just been plonked there!

On the way to iSpeed, Tom and I bumped into an English games operator! He was shocked to see us there, saying that the park only received about 3 or 4 English visitors a year. We had to admit that we were from an enthusiast group, and promised to come find him later - sadly I don’t think anyone remembered. iSpeed had a fairly short queue, so Gavin, Jared, Jerry and myself I think, opted to wait for front row. We spent the queue gooning over the strange whooshing noise of the launch, and taking pictures. Sadly for me, iSpeed is fun, but nothing special. I usually feel that way about Intamins so I shouldn’t be that surprised, but I had higher hopes for this ride. Apparently it’s better towards the back, which is strange for a launch – but I never got to test that theory. The launch was a bit meh, although the airtime over the hill was absolutely lovely. The worst thing about this ride was the restraints. OUCH OUCH OUCH. They are the most vile, most painful and most absurd things that just constantly get in the way. I spent more time trying to save my poor ears, than concentrating on the ride itself </3. Also, it just didn't seem to pick up enough speed for something based on an F1 theme.

iSpeed of unfortunate restraint

Then we went on the Flog Lume Autosplash, which had a really original car wash theme. This great little ride was fun and quirky, and had us all squabbling over who was gonna go in the pink boat-car. Unfortunately, the effects of Katun had now caught up with me, and I spent much of the hot and sticky queue line trying to suppress feelings of nausea. Luckily the feeling finally subdued, and I felt much better as we headed over to the next kiddy cred.

Family Adventure is a poorly-named, rather un-themed little Vekoma mine train. Not too bad, but nothing special. However, after all the gs on Katun, something weird had happened to my brain, and every little corner suddenly felt really intense. This was my first real experience of intense ERT so if someone can explain what this felling of ‘accumulation of forces’ is all about, I would be very grateful. All I know is, it really took me by surprise.

We decided to have a break for lunch and give our bodies a rest. Most of us headed to the American-style diner, after which, I mooched off to call my Mum. When I re-joined the group, I got a big clap as apparently, I was the last to return. Nothing new there then (although I swear I still had 2 minutes left till meet up)! We got the other two kiddy creds over with. One was Explorer, a Mack Blauer Enzian in which the train rested on banked track in the station, meaning that you fell into each other trying to get in lol! We also did Pakal – it’s a wild mouse, so you know I loved it. We spent the queue line reading some amazing graffiti, including the lyrics to Nessun Dorma! Just bizarre!

The group split into a group for the shot/drop towers and a group for the horror maze Phobia. The towers had a big queue, so I decided to pay the 2 euro extra for the maze. I also saw that the towers were named after the space shuttles Discovery and Columbia, and we all know what happened to Columbia! I felt happier taking my chances with the maze instead. Unfortunately, it was pointless and un-scary - kinda wish I’d decided to sleep on the grass instead.

With the group back together again, we headed to Reset as the rain began to set in. I was given the bag of shame to wear and turned it into an impromptu rain-shield. I looked so fab. Reset is a shooty ride based in a post-apocalyptic New York. The theming is FABULOUS <3 and a huge area of the park has been set aside for this one ride. It is crying out for more rides here, and I really hope they expand it in the future. Billboards, road signs, a destroyed Statue of Liberty, tunnels, trams, buses, cars – they really have put a lot of effort into this area. The ride is also pretty damn good inside, building on the really original theme. The ride also has its own bar. Amazing!

We decided to give iSpeed another chance, but as we got there the heavens well and truly opened, and we had Monsoon times. The ride closed and we huddled in the queue as more and more people gave up and left. A ride op told us that the rain wasn’t going to let up for another 4 hours, so we sadly dragged ourselves to seek shelter in an amusement arcade. I went off to find a Panini-like affair and came back to find a violent CF table football match in full swing. The rest of the park appeared to have gathered around a boy breaking some funky moves on a dance mat. Sadly, we decided to call it a day for Mirabilandia. I was thoroughly disappointed I didn’t get to try Katun after it had warmed up for the day. Overall though, I liked the park - it wasn’t trying to be something it’s not. It’s just itself – a decent park with no fuss, a couple of excellent rides and a large number of family-friendly rides. It has moments of quirkiness, from the weird mascots to the carwash log flume, to the amazing Reset area, which I hope they pick up and run with. I’d have loved to have seen it in on a sunny, less humid day.

That afternoon we had a long drive down to Rome. It’s a shame there was so much rain as there really was some beautiful countryside covered by cloud that we missed out on. I was in Jerry’s car and got a chance to get to know him and Christine better, you’re both lovely and have EXCELLENT taste in music The drive was made even longer by a huge traffic jam, and we finally reached the hotel tired and sleepy. I didn’t even bother with food, I just chilled for a while and then went to find people coming back from the restaurant, but everyone was going straight to bed, so I gladly did the same.

 

[10WaTT]

Hey sue my head was all over the place after Katun aswell, I actually greyed out on the Family adventure

Okay, my report is going to be mainly photos so here goes:

GARDALAND -

So this is what it feels like to be a Squirrel on a big tree adventure?

[Insert train here]

So this is what the police are allowed to use on rioters?

Before:

After #1:

After #2:

Check out his long toes:

This is where we met Bruno and ate free grub:

We were going to have a group photo here:

Love the position of the water:

Looks like some shelter to me sue...

This is the long queue people were talking about:

Hello Echo the dolphin:

Shower time you big godish man:

Mount rushmore mixed with the Lion king mixed with Iron man???

Mushy noticed the date to the left of the support, well noticed

Raptor- was great fun and I loved the theming!

Screaming Squirrel- I actually enjoyed this ride.

Magic Mountain- I think I would of enjoyed this more if I was on Magic Mushrooms, although I greyed out after the second loop which is worth noting.

Ortobruco Tour- Just a +1 for most people but this was my number 200 so it was special for me. I think someone counted 6 lift hills?

Mammut- I was looking forward to this due to the great look of theming but the bumpiness just distracted me too much, still a fun ride, nothing amazing.

Blue Tornado- The mist on your feet while on Blue Tornado was a nice touch and the feeling of almost kicking the bushes all the way round the helix at the end was fun(left hand side only), but otherwise just your average SLC.

Fuga D'Atlantide- Such a cred!

Loved the penis shaped bush in the kiddie area.

The boat ride underground was good.

I came third on Ramses and won a teddy of the park mascot, cheers

Loved not riding the drop tower to witness the load of lizards.

Overall Gardaland is a really good park and well themed all over, definately worth a visit if your thinking about it.

 

[Ian]

Wow! Dave, Thays a brilliant report and smashing photos.

Loving the detail and thoughts in Rach and Sue's as well.

Love it!

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Day 4 – Rainbow Magicland

The rain subsided overnight and the last day of the Live arrived bright and sunny. We drove into a very quiet car park with no more than 20 cars parked up, and tried to get a sneak peek at the theming through the gate while waiting for the others to arrive. Somehow, Ian managed to go the wrong way, so while waiting for the last car to arrive, we inspected the park entrance sign. It was not a good start. The whole thing was shoddily made, and I easily managed to unscrew parts of it (which yes, I did put back). The acrylic panels weren’t even properly coloured, only stick on coloured sheets, which people had already begun to peel off a few months after opening! At some stage Taylor was talking about studying medicine, and AJ comes out with ‘I could never be a nurse. I’d have to tell people bad news, like the death of their daughter, through interpretive dance’. Of course, Richard and I were then forced to act out the scene of our tragic Taylor’s death, to be recounted by AJ sweeping across the concrete. Randomers stopped in their tracks in awe and fear! SOMEONE HAS TO POST THAT VIDEO!!! Once Ian’s car turned up, we had a group photo around the dodgy sign, and then headed inside.

Dodgy photo, dodgy sign

<rant warning!!!> I’d been looking forward to a park dripping with theming to rival Phantasialand. Unfortunately, it was nothing like I’d imagined from the spoilers. It was in fact AWFUL. It was TACKY. It was MADE OF PLASTIC!!! Words cannot describe my hatrid of Rainbow Magicland. I think I shocked quite a few people as I wasn’t the eternal optimist for once! I’m sorry, I know that others really liked it, but for me there was just rage. You see, I think a theme park should be immersive and magical - you have to truly believe that you are in another world. Everything in Rainbow Gayland was false and half arsed. It is my second least favourite park to Bobbejaanland, that’s how bad it is! Parts of it had something special (Huntik and the rapids) but mainly I just found it sparse and open. Why put in real windows when you can paint them on? Why bring in real statues when you can use plastic ones? Why spend money putting in trees or landscaping to separate lands? Why bother to theme the inside of rides when the outside is such a high standard? The whole thing was lazy, or at best, unfinished. </rant>

First ride we hit up was Shock: The Steam Machine I think, a rather nice looking launched X-car with some plastic stem-punk theme going on. At one stage I found a bit of metal theming and got overexcited! I got a back row seat and thought the ride was fun, with a nice little bit of air time, but nothing special. The ‘shock’ for me was how everyone else seemed to love this ride. Maybe I’d missed something? Maybe I’ll find out later…?

Shock – steam punk fun

Then I think we did Believix, the fairy dark ride. Vadge ludicrously compared it to the amazing Droomvluch at Efteling and suffered my rage! It’s a few months old and already broken in parts. They also stopped us for like 5 minutes in a random place high up on the track (I guess they had loading issues). The only amusing things were that I got to ride with Richard and shout about more Ominous Octopi, and laugh at the use of model railway vegetation that was way too small for the rest of the set.

We wanted to do the rapids next as it was getting hot, but they were closed, so we headed towards the kiddy creds. First up was Amerigo, a new and good-looking big apple. It even had an on-ride photo! Amusing! They wouldn’t let us go on the baby dodgems, so we stopped to play in a kid’s swimming pool that had grime all over the floor, and Maddie narrowly missed being pushed in. We then found a really tiny children’s play area that was so small, even CF couldn’t find a use for it! Next up was Bomborun. Now I seemed to be the only one who had seen Monster Allergy, the TV show on which this ride is based (it’s a bit like Pokemon with talking cats) and I was quite excited, seeing as how Bombo has been my avatar for the last 6 months...but I was forced to be forever alone on that one!

Bombo <3 (if anyone cares, he likes to eat shoes)

By now we were eating through creds fast, and soon it was time to try Cagliostro – the spiny cred in-a-box (to which Ian showed his age by singing Living in a Box). It’s so sad because this ride has lots of potential - I adore the upside-down mansion building covered in MC Esher pictures, but the inside of this ride was just poo - a big dark warehouse with some flashing lights. Maybe they will get funding and sort out the inside in the future. I really hope so. While queuing, I got attacked by the most disgusting, humongous bug I’ve ever seen *shudders*

I forget the order of rides now, but I think we went for Huntik the 3D shooter. This was by far the best themed ride in the park, with giant scary warrior-crocodile sculptures outside. The shooting element was a mixture of 3D screens and traditional laser dots. The 3D was probably some of the best I’d seen, so a big thumbs up from me. The only thing that let it down was the crappy quality of theming (again) inside the queue – instead of painting straight onto the wall, they had used transfers which had been hugely defaced. This park isn’t even a year old!!!

Then possibly it was the Llying Fisland L’Isola Volante which gave us nice views of the park and the shopping centre next door. They appear to have a huge amount of land to expand (so when it goes bust, whoever buys it has lots of room for improvement).

It was the afternoon and very, very hot, so the big water ride Yucatan was called. It was a fairly large boat ride with two big drops, but somehow we all managed to stay dry. The animatronics around the bottom were already broken, although to be fair, the ones inside before the last drop were working and really very good (they included a giant ugly bear that nearly leaps into the boat).

The wetness continued with Drakkar rapids, which had now opened. These were excellent and we all got totally soaked because there was no let-up in splashing, fountains and the like. Really decent rapids (for the non-drop type anyway).

L’Olandese Volante was to be the last cred. We had somehow managed to save the worst till last. Vekoma mine train with a boring layout, no theming and rough-as-hell track for something so new. Eurgh.

We split for lunch and a load of us went to a fancy-looking restaurant. I really enjoyed getting to know the Americans some more, and getting jealous of Jerry’s stories about Hard Rock Park (that Led Zeppelin coaster sounds like it was amazing). Unfortunately, the restaurant was excruciatingly slow, and took over an hour to serve us, meaning we were late back for the meet. Also the food wasn’t very nice, they brought us chips after everyone had finished their food, and they ignored our request for the bill :x

We legged it over to the others in the queue for the drop tower Mystika. I’d been trying not to look at the tower all day as drop towers give me the fear on the best of days, and this one was HUGE. It also made weird clunking noises as we sat in it, and they couldn’t get the restraints to shut propery, so I was bricking it. It kept going up and up and up and up and up….I was not happy, although the view was breathtaking. However, when it dropped, there was absolutely no stomach-churning at all. It was very tame, and hit the brakes half way down the tower. I felt cheated after being so scared. Pointless drop tower of pointlessness had Sue rage (as caught on camera by Mark I believe). Ahhhhh!

We re-rode Shock a few more times and it was much better in the afternoon. I got two more goes, and on the last one, got to sit in the front. Finally, I understood why people liked this ride. The front row is a million times more exciting than the rest of the car, and I gladly joined in the CF Shock love-in. Fun times. We also re-rode the fab Huntik ride.

That was it really. We searched round the park for ages trying to found the mad house Maison Houdini, but when we found it, it was shut. The main castle building wasn’t finished yet, but is marked as Planetarium on the map, which could be quite geeky and cool if it’s a real one. I spent 15 minutes trying to find a cash machine that was marked on the map but didn’t exist, and had to go out of the park to get to one! We went wandering down numerous paths of pointlessness that didn’t seem to go anywhere. We also did some shopping. The merchandise was great and really cheaply priced. I bought an amazing bag with Gattobaleno on it - the cat with the rainbow-coloured tail. This just shows the power of marketing, considering my views on the park in general.

Mark with the rainbow-cat

So, I guess, apologies for the negativity of this report. Most people who know me, know that I’m usually upbeat and try and see the good in things, so with that in mind I will say this: The park has huge potential to be a whole lot better. It has some moments of sparkle, but in my opinion, needs a lot of landscaping so that not all of the park is visible at all times. It also needs to complete the interior ride theming, although I appreciate that there were funding issues. For once, I kinda hope Merlin buys it as another Italian investment and does something with it! I would be interested to read a report from someone who liked the park. I guess we need one now for balance lol!

However, the company as always was amazing. People always say that Lives are about people first and coasters second, and this trip was no different. I have another set of crazy memories to keep me going for when I’m old and stuck in a chair pretending I’m still on Nemesis! Thanks again you mental lot…and till next time…****-axio!!!!

 

[peep]

Wow, some fantastic trip reports there guys. Awesome pics Dave, I love those little lizards, they are so fascinating to watch.

Uber jealous about the Johnny 5 robot, I want my pic with him!

Shame to hear about Magicland, I'm hoping they go back and paint the theming next time, maybe it was their way to save time so they could open the park on time? Maison Houdini is the last attraction to open and I'm praying it's open when I go next month, I hear it's special in the same way Huntik is. The animatronics on the boat ride at the bottom have never worked, not sure why. Apparently they have added some bits and bobs to the spinner since it opened (by the sound of it, listening to the fans), I reckon it was another rush job which is a shame due to the theming of the exterior. The planetarium is a giant 4D cinema basically and shows two films, a proper planetarium show and Sammy the turtle (which seems to be EVERYWHERE) but they are long are only shown a few times each day hence why it probably looked closed when you went over to it.

Oh well, keep the reports coming!!!

 

[marc]

Peep, some people liked the park some did not. Yes it is very plastic and not finished, but given a chance they should be ok. The park is not lacking in rides put it that way, what they have is good they just need to get the people in the park.

For me it lacked atmosphere as it was empty, but the 2 water rides were good the rapids were fantastic tbh. The shooter ride was really good just a shame some of the screens were 2d as the camera was not working plus some of the guns were broken.

Shock is fantastic I really enjoyed it.

It is what it is. For me its no Disney or Phantasialand but its better themed that most UK parks thats for sure.

All that has been added to the none spinning spinning coaster (lol) are some lights.

I will make a trip report this weekend.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Here are my final two trip reports! Mirabilandia and Rainbow Magicland!



MIRABILANDIA

So it was finally the day where we would go to the park I was looking forward to the most. The day didn’t start off so good though, with Brad being sick and me getting up at four in the morning thinking breakfast was at six for some reason. After going back to bed for a bit I felt a bit better but sadly Brad wasn’t, so we headed down to breakfast where I ate loads and Brad ate almost nothing. Soon, we were in Tom’s car headed to the park. When we got there, Brad hurled, but thankfully it made him feel much better for the time being.

We got into the park early, eager for our ERT on Katun.

I ended up riding five times, which was one less time than everyone else. I started feeling a bit ill after the fourth ride so I figured it would be the smart thing to do! Katun was a decent ride, but as I’ve said before, I prefer the smaller inverted coasters to the bigger ones because they’re more forceful. Don’t get me wrong, Katun was very forceful and was as good as I expected it to be, but for me it will never surpass the likes of Nemesis, Afterburn, and even La Vampire.

Unfortunately, Master Thai was running but spited us.

We headed to the kiddie cred next which had adorable theming.

Not much to say other than it was just another cred, but with really cute fruit and vegetables underneath it. Since Ispeed was right nearby, we went to that and realized the queue wasn’t that long, which was a bonus. Jerry and Jared went for the front, whereas everyone else queued for the other seats.

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/282408_10150738131340343_578800342_20041232_7033657_n.jpg[img]

I was looking forward to Ispeed more than any other coaster on the trip and I have to say, I was a bit underwhelmed. I rode in the back seat and it was very rough, and although people complain of head banging and neck chopping on other similar rides with those restraints, I never had a problem with them until that particular ride. It was fun, but having been on similar coasters such as Maverick, Fahrenheit, and Storm Runner, it just didn’t really compare. It was still fun and I wish we got a reride because I feel like the back was more rough than other seats, but it’s nothing that stood out for me.

[img]http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/224408_10150738131595343_578800342_20041238_3009404_n.jpg

While waiting for the front seat riders to get off, we saw the HIDEOUS shoes.

Some people decided to ride the log flume after, while others decided it would be more fun to spray them with cannons.

We waiting quite a while for them, but it was worth it when we got to piss them off.

After the ride, AJ showed off his prize winning pubes while Ian showed off his prize winning toupee!

We went to the Roller Skater to get the CRED.

Then we got lunch at a cafeteria style restaurant, which wasn’t too bad.

I waited around with Brad while the others rode the Dino Eggs, because he was feeling ill.

Pakal was next, which was a fairly awful wild mouse.

And our beautiful ORP, which makes me look like I have the most messed up hand on Earth.

Some weird powered coaster was next, which was sort of awful.

So awful in fact, that Jerry decided to break the turnstile!

I didn’t get any photos, but most of us went on the rapids afterward, which weren’t too bad but got my butt quite wet. I don’t usually ride water rides, but I do like rapids so I try not to skip them. Some people got drenched though, and I was happy I wasn’t one of them!

Some rode the shot and drop tower while others went in the haunt while others sat and did nothing. Personally, I did the haunt and I regret it because it wasn’t that good.

It was raining by this time, but at least Sue was equipped with a state of the art hat.

We headed to the shooter, which had amazing theming!

The shooter itself was decent, but not the best one I’ve done. I did really well though, for once!

After that it was really raining, but we queued for Ispeed in hopes of a reride. The day went slightly downhill from here, with us not getting that reride and the rain never letting up, not to mention that we left the park only to get stuck in traffic for ages! When we got back to the hotel, me and Brad both felt under the weather so we had an early night hoping to feel better for Rainbow Magicland the next day! Sadly, I wasn’t overly impressed by Mirabilandia. The rides were okay, and the theming wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. It sort of reminded me of an American park, in all honesty. Still, it was fab of them to give us ERT and all that!

Next up- RAINBOW MAGICLAND

Much to my dismay, we were in Richard’s car for the journey which I thought meant certain death considering all the horror stories I had heard about his driving. Thankfully, it wasn’t bad and we were the first ones to arrive at the park. We had to wait around for a while because a few of the cars set their GPS to go to the airport instead of the park! It gave us an opportunity to take some photos and do some interpretive dance.

This one is one of my personal favourites!

I reckon he should be in a Rainbow Magicland advertisement.

It started getting hot and a few of us sought shade.

Once the entire group arrived, we took the group photo in front of the sign. It took Jerry ages to try to work out the camera, but in the end he failed and we just got someone else to do it.

Finally, we were headed into the park.

First up on the agenda was Shock, which was a walkon.

I think Shock was a pleasant surprise for everyone, including myself. I had never been on a ride like it before, and it was actually really intense with good elements and a nice launch.

After the ride, Brad and Sam decided to play on the theming.

There was a kiddie cred on the horizon!

After getting the cred, which turned out to be Vadge’s 200th I believe, we went on this weird fairy ride in which fairy Barbies were strung up all over the place. It was still cute though!

No idea what AJ and Jordan were doing after the ride!

The path of pointlessness.

Kiddieland was quite cute.

And it had another kiddie cred in it! Win!

I got off the ride only to find Jordan sweeping up the pathways in a merry manner!

We were denied the awesome bumper cars.

The group skipped the drop tower for the time being, but most of them went back to ride it after lunch. Sadly, they said it was awful, and it sure looked it!

Whatever was in this building was closed.

I like the setting of the park around the lake.

We rode the Escher ride next, which has awesome theming on the outside, but absolutely nothing on the inside.

Sad really, because Escher is one of my favourite artists with one of my favourite pieces of art being the one of the staircases. If they had used that to theme the inside of the ride, it would have been incredible!

The group headed over to the shooter next, which was AWESOME!

My score was awful but the ride itself was really well done!

There was one more cred left to get, which turned out to be full of suck, but whatever.

We were getting hungry so the group split for lunch. Most of us opted to go to the restaurant with the cool dragon lights.

AJ made a castle out of risotto.

After lunch, Sam pretended to be a pirate.

We met the group over at the drop tower, where we got a nice view of the park and saw a really freaky looking penguin.

While waiting, I took a photo with Mark!

After everyone was off the drop tower, we went over to the water rides.

I decided to be bag lady for the first one because it looked like it gave a good soaking, which I didn’t really want. I wanted to go on the rapids, but when I saw the waterfalls I decided that I would be bag lady for that, too. Thankfully, Jerry decided to get a POV of the first water ride, so me and him rode it together.

For the rest of the day, we got slushies, rerode Shock and the shooter, and got pictures with the gay cat!

Overall, I really liked Rainbow Magicland. It was a nice surprise and although the park was dead and I have doubts that it will last long, I’m really happy I got to go there! I knew nothing about the park before I went, and didn’t even know which creds they had, so Shock turned out to be a pleasant surprise as well!

We headed to Ciampino to say goodbye to those who were leaving, and to give Ian his presents which included his favourite CD ever! Those going to Rome got on the bus, and when we arrived at Rome Termini, me, Brad, Jerry, Christine, and Aidan parted from the rest of the group to find out hotel.

THE END

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Glad someone got a picture of those funky dragon lights