Tips and Tricks for Mirabilandia, Italy

[CoasterCrazy]

I'll be visiting this much-acclaimed Italian park very soon, and was just wondering if there exist any things I especially need to know, to maximise my time at the park. These include:

- Inexorably, queue times in general. How do they influence the 'running order'?
-Speaking of an order, which attractions do you recommend I visit first?
-Is Master Thai a) any good and b) a capacity nightmare? Is it a ride you hit earlier in the day?
- How good (and wet) are the water rides?
- Are there accessible lockers to store bags (and food)?
- Any 'hacks' , like single rider?

Thanks for your input already - there will, of course, be a trip report!

 

[CookieCoasters]

I've visited once two years ago and we ended up getting the flash pass option, which I would recommend getting if you can, if the queues are all 30-60+mins.

- None of the queues that I noticed looked dreadful ( as in 1.5-2 hours) and I didn't really notice any pattern i.e. This ride gets longer queues at this time.
- Probably do Pakal first (wild mouse), because it is low capacity and the operations at Mirabilandia aren't great. It's actually a pretty good wild mouse though. I then would head over to the Ispeed and Divertical area, which is at the back as they attract long lines and don't have great capacity although the ops for Ispeed were easily the most efficient in the park. I'd leave Katun to the afternoon because that's when they put a second train on usually, so the queue will move quicker. You shouldn't have too much of a problem with the other three creds.
- a) no, it's crap b) kind of, but I don't remember it having very long queues (could be wrong). Maybe do it the end of the day, if you're planning to stay for some of the evening.
- Divertical is cool. It's pretty wet in row 3, but not too bad anywhere else unless there's a strong-ish wind. Auto splash (log flume) is fun, but not particularly wet. El Rio (rapids) wasn't great or massively wet, but these rides can vary a lot. Niagra (tidal wave ride) is obviously very wet.
- Can't remember as we tend to leave our bags with my mum who doesn't generally ride, but I'd imagine so.
- something's telling me that there may have been a single rider line for Ispeed and Divertical, but honestly don't hold me to that and don't necessarily expect it.

I'll happily answer anymore of your questions. Have a great time at the park. Really looking forward to the TR

 

[TilenB]

- There's nothing to worry about queue time-wise. None of the attractions are low capacity and none are new this year (the only serious queues there were usually on the newest ride)
- If you're planning to go cred hunting (which I assume you are), hit Pakal first and then go wherever you'd wish (if it will be a busy day, every possible attraction would have a long wait by then)
- Nah, it's a rough coaster with bland layout. Just a plus one. And considering it's a bit far from anything else, it probably won't develop a long queue.
- DiVertical is awesome. Fun, fast and also gets you pretty wet. Other water rides are also pretty alright (if you want to get soaked, I suggest you hit Raratonga and Niagara. Those two won't disappoint you.
- I can't recall of any real lockers near the rides (this might've changed in the past 2 years since my last visit), but both iSpeed and Katun have storage closets/bins in the ride station (similar to the ones on Nemesis or Air). Otherwise, do as others do and leave your handbags in the ride station (I've never heard of anyone getting something stolen, people in Italian theme parks are generally quite fair)
- I don't think that any of the rides has single rider queue (this of course, might as well have changed in the last 2 years). I have a small hack for the shooter (Reset).

Spoiler

When riding it, aim for the letters above the track on somekind of a road sign and aim for the shapes on a screen in the last room before the ride's finish

.

And don't forget to see Scuola di Polizia.

 

[andrus]

First of all: Mirabilandia is a wonderful park, one of my favourites! I hope you enjoy it as well :--D

We visited the park on two consecutive days, since you get the second day for free (a real bargain). The queues aren't that bad, but 1 hour queue for iSpeed and 30 min for Pakal, the dark ride etc were still a bit too much in the hot Italian weather. So the second day we opted for the q-bot option. Not too expensive if I remember correctly, and it's such a wonderful device! Usually we rode Katun (since it was walk on) meanwhile the q-bot queued for us at the other attractions

All of the other questions where covered in detail by TilySlo and CookieCoaster, so no need to go into that again

 

[CoasterCrazy]

Thanks for all the feedback! I visited the park for 2 consecutive days using the wonderful deal, and subsequently did mirabeach for half a day. Before the full trip review is posted, here are a few thoughts:

-The park is, on the whole, very nicely kept and themed, although majorly flawed in the sense that there is no full story (especially on Reset) to make sense of the theming.

-Katun and Ispeed are both true gems. Katun is flawless, but whilst Ispeed is great, it just didn't seem to deliver throughout the whole course like Katun did (eg the pointless banked sections).

- However, aside from the 'holy trinity of bigger coasters', there's really very little else to do in the thrills department. The park is desperately in need of flat rides and coasters to bridge the kiddie/family to extreme gap. Even a *coughcough* vekoma roller skater would be a much needed addition...just something else to reride really. Could also do with more dark rides too...

-I failed to see any Q-bots - seems like they've switched to the flash pass system which slows everything down.,

-Ride ops were on the whole very efficient - but they still need a single rider queue and flash pass had catastrophic effects.

-Sadly, I was spited by Divertical for three consecutive days. More on that next time

 

[TilenB]

- However, aside from the 'holy trinity of bigger coasters', there's really very little else to do in the thrills department. The park is desperately in need of flat rides and coasters to bridge the kiddie/family to extreme gap. Even a *coughcough* vekoma roller skater would be a much needed addition...just something else to reride really. Could also do with more dark rides too...

I agree with you on this one, although I don't really think that another family coaster would be needed... As goes for flats, there isn't anything really apart from S&S Drop towers. They did use to have some crazy ass flat when we first visited in 2003 (I don't really remember it though, just found some pictures on our camera). As goes for dark rides, are there any really left? I remember Ghostville being a fantastic dark ride, but it has got scrapped and upgraded into an upcharge walkthrough (Phobia or whatever is it now called...).

-Sadly, I was spited by Divertical for three consecutive days. More on that next time

Oh, that sucks... I've managed to ride it 10 days after it had opened and only got to ride twice from 5 tries (for 2 times it had broke down when we were already sited in the car...). I thought that these issues with it should have been solved by now (considering that it's not Intamin's first attempt on a ride like this...).

How were the queues, though?

 

[CookieCoasters]

Glad to see the efficiency of the employees has improved. They we're pretty slow when I went, especially on Katun.

 

[TilenB]

^ When did you visit? When I went in 2009, the operations on Katun were super efficient (although it was practically the peak of the season and the park was pretty packed, the queues were close to non existant). Same couldn't be said for iSpeed, though... But the efficiency has also vastly improved on iSpeed by the end of the season, when I made a re-visit...

 

[CoasterCrazy]

I didn't really notice any 'typical' Italian operations, Katun for instance was running two trains all day without ever stacking, but despite the efficiency of the Ispeed ops, the queue literally inched forwards. This is largely Intamin's fault for the 12 person trains (as opposed to Katun's 32), but the queue time was genuinely doubled due to flash pass, since they alternated between sending 10 flash passers into the station and the rest on the second cycle. Two switchbacks took an hour to traverse...queue times:

-Ispeed was consistently an hour
-10 maybe for Katun?
-Usually 40 for Autosplash - Niagara attracted some fairly long lines too.
-Plus reset and Master Thai (rightfully) defined the term 'walk-on' - I queued longer for Leprotto Express
-Divertical would've been a walk on, had there been any boats in the station :/


Anyway, regarding the roller skater, I just believe Family adventure beats Master Thai hands down For the thrill gap, they just need a few decent medium sized thrill coasters (or good family) coasters. Seriously, a boomerang would fit nicely, but a dark spinner a la winjas would comprehensively fit the bill.

Anyway, heading to Gardaland on Wednesday - let the childhood memories begin! (Honestly I've been to this park more times than any other)

 

[CookieCoasters]

^^ I visited in July 2012. They ran two trains on Katun for like an hour or two in the afternoon and switched back to one afterwards. The ops were constantly chatting while checking the restraints and the queue was usually about 30-40 mins. However, this didn't really pose a massive issue because I had the q bot, but it's just something I noticed.

Ispeed on the other hand was very efficient, but it really needs to be because the capacity is pretty poor.

^ In theory something like the Winjas would be good, but I doubt it would be anywhere near as effective at Mirabilandia because they'd probably give up with the theming like with Master Thai. A spinning coaster would be good though, every park NEEDS one :wink:

In selfish mode though, I really want Mirabilandia to add a massive intamin woodie similar to T Express (Italy needs wood and airtime). Plus I'm probably too impatient to wait many years to travel to South Korea

 

[TilenB]

^^ Typical Italian operations? And comes from a person who (presumably) has Thorpe Park as his home park? Oh well...

^ That's weird... I can't really comment on the situation in 2012, since I've visited the park on a very quiet June day (the only ride that had any queue at all was DiVertical, even iSpeed was a walk-on). But I can say that the operations on Katun were amazingly efficient in July 2009. The queue was constantly moving and the wait never exceeded 5 minutes during the course of the day. I can even recall me and my dad having 5 back to back rides in the course of 30-40 minutes...

 

[CoasterCrazy]

5 back to back rides! Does 2 in 30 minutes count for anything?

Also, I was just quoting TPR's park index where they stated 'typical Italian operations can lead to frustration'. For some reason they also claimed that Divertical was closed; I suppose they were correct about the latter...

Additionally, I now have an Ispeed hack for anyone brave enough - nearing the end of the day, there are no attendants at the entrance ramp to check flash passes! Therefore you can just join the flash pass queue whether you possess a flash pass or not...not that I violated the rules!

Whilst a woodie would be a wonderful addition and easily marketable, judging by the state MK1 ended up in, I doubt it could be sustainably maintained in the harsh Italian climate. Something more durable would be needed...possibly involving steel too? I'm sure there's some crazy American company who can build hybrids somewhere A steel supported GCI could work too.

Gardaland tomorrow, but the TR should come in a few weeks to permit video editing time

 

[TilenB]

Whilst a woodie would be a wonderful addition and easily marketable, judging by the state MK1 ended up in, I doubt it could be sustainably maintained in the harsh Italian climate. Something more durable would be needed...possibly involving steel too? I'm sure there's some crazy American company who can build hybrids somewhere A steel supported GCI could work too.

I was also thinking that a RMC would be a nice addition to the park. There's still plenty of space around the Ferris Wheel, so I guess they could put one there, if they ever plan on doing it.

Also, I was just quoting TPR's park index where they stated 'typical Italian operations can lead to frustration'. For some reason they also claimed that Divertical was closed; I suppose they were correct about the latter...

They also claim that Formule X is an unique Maurer Söhne launched coaster. So I guess they're not really the ones to be taking too many tips from.