Gardaland

Dave said:

If The Smiler had even half the theming this ride we would be absolute bumming it. The sad thing is this proves Merlin can do good theming, i just wish they would maybe try and do this in the UK!

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Depressing that they can come up with this in Italy, yet all we get here is 10,000 tonnes of concrete and the world's smallest satellite dish.

Well, if they'd done the ground survey properly on Smiler they wouldn't have had to waste the budget on the suddenly required concrete...

Anyone can do good theming if they have the money and go to the right place for the theming. Gardaland clearly have a history of good theming and that no doubt helps. Meanwhile Merlin in the UK use Merlin Studios at Towers (at least for much of the SW theming I think) which we know is a rip off and the quality has not been proven to be all that great.

Clearly The Smiler did have theming cuts also.

The Smiler is ostensibly reasonably well themed.

As is Th13teen.

They just didn't do a top job on either in truth.

AstroDan said:

The Smiler is ostensibly reasonably well themed.

As is Th13teen.

They just didn't do a top job on either in truth.

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The 'marmaliser' is the only decent theming element but even this has very little creative value. It gives the impression it was designed by a marketeer and put together by builders with little involvement from people with genuine artistic skill (with Oblivion, Nemesis and even Thirteen you can clearly see there was). As a structure it is impressive in the way it dominates the area and interacts with the coaster track but this cannot hide from the fact it is little more than a bunch of plain steel frames stuck together with yellow coloured tat stuck on top. There is little to appreciate.

The mass of track is a sight to behold from most viewpoints, but the attraction has been clumsily shoehorned into a space it is plainly too small to accommodate. Such poor planning and design has resulted in the majority of space under and around the ride fenced off and completely under-utilized.The structure around the toilet block is almost abominable as is the station building, area fencing, entrance feature, queue etc. Just one big bodge job.

What can be said about the coaster positively is that it has a strong brand identity justified by unique and exciting ride hardware which is a lot more than can be said for the mediocrity that was thrust upon the park by Tussauds in the shape of Spinball and Rita.

The 'new Oblivion' in Italy does at least look like somebody has actually sat down and designed more than just the track layout and brand (which they nicked anyway), which is about all that can be said about The Smiler.

I really like the look of this coaster! The theming is brilliant and inventive, and the queue line looks to be a really interesting part of an "experience" rather than just a way to get people to line up. This was attempted by towers on our no less brilliant Oblivion, but unfortunately most of the good theming and tunnels etc. are before the queue actually forms, so people barely notice it, granted the ride has a great throughput.
The layout of this also seems well thought out and paced, with the airtime hill borrowed from Krake, and the final corkscrew/barrel roll ending the ride on a high. This follows Wardley's theory of trying to leave the best bit till last, or at least to keep the thrill and element of surprise going without petering out towards the end.

The only thing I feel they could improve on is to put some mist around the tunnel entrance and turn off those damn lights! Or at least just have small orange led strips like seen in "Diving Coaster vanish". Otherwise though I can't criticise this at all, it may lack height and the general "hugeness" of most full size divers, but looks to be a great attraction nonetheless!

Big thumbs up to Merlin!

The problem Towers has is that there is no one seeing the project through from Planning, Design, Construction, Marketing and Operations. All of the above are different departments who don't communicate and work towards the final figures.

From what I've heard the designer of O:BH at Gardaland focused more on the experience rather than track and train regardless of the cost. They wanted a story not some tacky marketing gimmick. This has resulted in a ride which is not just visually stunning but an experience on what would just be a standard(ish) dive coaster.

If anything i'm glad we've not got anything like this at Alton Towers. If Th13teen, Rita and parts of the Smiler are anything to go by, the ride would be a ruin after a few years with no maintenance or care put into the ride. At least abroad, they care for their themeing and attractions to make them last as long as possible and not rot away.

Oblivion is very good actually, not a lot of people have mentioned even some of the more intricate details around the hole (including warped paving)... The queue is what Smiler's probably should've been really, although in typical Merlin fashion some effects were broken... The ride is naturally similar to Krake, and the inline is taken at a decent pace to combine the laterals and hangtime... It's fun and re-rideable, which I what I want my coaster to be...

One thing that is a massive situation is their Fastrack... The overselling was pretty much worse than I've ever seen before, even at Thorpe... One shots everywhere but the main problem is the addition of an €80 addon to all annual passes for an unlimited use of Fastrack for the entire year...

Imagine if that happened in the UK, where if you paid £100 you got unlimited Fastrack... Doesn't bear thinking about...

My suggestion this year, is to avoid Gardaland on any day that might be remotely busy, otherwise the queues for Fastrack will be pretty much out the door...

Benzin said:

One thing that is a massive situation is their Fastrack... The overselling was pretty much worse than I've ever seen before, even at Thorpe... One shots everywhere but the main problem is the addition of an €80 addon to all annual passes for an unlimited use of Fastrack for the entire year...

Imagine if that happened in the UK, where if you paid £100 you got unlimited Fastrack... Doesn't bear thinking about...

My suggestion this year, is to avoid Gardaland on any day that might be remotely busy, otherwise the queues for Fastrack will be pretty much out the door...

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Ouch! That seems like a pretty stupid idea. Clear as to why they've done it - they're going to make a killing from it. However it's an awful tactic that is going to ruin the speed of main queues on busy days. Basically a cheaper version of the VIP MAP we have.

They have to pay for 11pm closes somehow...

Fastrack was 50% of capacity on Fuga de Atlantide in 2012 too.

That is really poor, although not as bad as Parque de Atracciones Madrid where I saw fastrack taking literally about 80% of the capacity of one of their coasters on a one train operation, all coming up the exit and thoroughly slowing everything down.

Does anyone know what type of throughputs/ utilisation Oblivion 2 has been getting? I know that when Raptor opened it was only getting 600-700pph whilst Swarm was achieving up to 1200 in its first season. This was apparently due to the way Gardaland ops refused to open the air gates until everyone had cleared the station, something which greatly slowed down the loading process and caused stacking whilst on Swarm it is standard procedure to open the gates pretty much as soon as the trains stop.

Raptor was very slow when we visited in 2012. The ride programming doesn't help, as for some reason the train parks on the first brake run until the station is clear, rather than waiting directly behind the station. As a result even when on 2 trains there's a long gap between a train leaving and the next arriving.

They now open the airgates in the same way as Swarm, but yeah, the daft ride system doesn't help throughputs at all...

Oblivio probably gets a similar number... But there is so much stacking and lack of organisation though, so it's nowhere near as high as it should be I reckon...

siralgenon said:

From what I've seen of the ride today on Facebook, the queue-line, station and even exit for that matter look amazing. Far better than anything we have here in the UK. Definitely an improvement on the effects found in and around The Smilers queue-line, station and exit.

As you can see from this video:

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OMG if Merlin can go to this much effort with a fairly lame mini dive machine in a park that generates a fraction of the money AT do then you have to seriously question what they are doing. The Smilers queue should have been as good as this.

Smilers queue SHOULD have been Oblivio's, especially with the various rooms for 'training'...

Its disappointing, even if its a fantastic step forward...

JB1985 said:

OMG if Merlin can go to this much effort with a fairly lame mini dive machine in a park that generates a fraction of the money AT do then you have to seriously question what they are doing. The Smilers queue should have been as good as this.

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Buahahahahahaha!!! Gardaland makes a fraction of what Alton does..? ! Really???!!! I would perhaps check both parks yearly attendance before making such statements! Gardaland makes at least as much money as Towers, beside their theming is far superior because it is put together by their own art department (not sure you have noticed how the rest of the park looks like...) even if the great Caudio Mazzoli (who contributed to the theming of Disney parks) no longer works for them they still manage to put some great stuff together. Let's put bitterness and jealousy aside and just appreciate it for what it is...

How much did they pay you to write that?

It comes from the bottom of my heart and I've done it for the glory! No vile money involved.. The truth had to be spoken

Indeed the truth has to be spoken. The theming? In most cases yes, I'm jealous. The actual coaster itself? I'd rather find somewhere else to take a nap if I'm honest.

Gardaland isn't all glory.

The park is actually a mess in terms of thematic experiences.

Some rides are themed not at all, whilst some are themed well.

You have an artic themed mine train adjacent to a space-aged theme rollercoaster and an Atlantis themed water ride round the corner...