Gardaland

[Quetzal]

Last year Ice Age, this year Madagascar?

Aren't they due a new coaster at some point?

 

[John]

They got Raptor in 2011, so it's a bit early for another major coaster. I'd have expected something slightly more major than a 2nd consecutive clone of a recent UK IP-based addition though.

 

[Anonymous]

Last year Ice Age, this year Madagascar?

Aren't they due a new coaster at some point?

That'll be 2014 if we're working on the usual Merlin 3 year plan. I heard they were looking into a Zierer Free Fall coaster to replace Rameses (Aka Terminator / Mummy cross dark ride).

 

[Benzin]

Last year Ice Age, this year Madagascar?

Aren't they due a new coaster at some point?

That'll be 2014 if we're working on the usual Merlin 3 year plan. I heard they were looking into a Zierer Free Fall coaster to replace Rameses (Aka Terminator / Mummy cross dark ride).

I bloody hope not, Ramses is a brilliant dark ride...

Plenty of other crap they can get rid of first, like the pointless magic tent outside Raptor, or the scaremaze...

 

[Mattmash]

Although I'm not really a dark ride shooter fan, I must admit I really enjoyed Ramses. Certainly one of the better ones I've done, it would be a shame if it were replaced.

 

[LiamC]

Last year Ice Age, this year Madagascar?

Aren't they due a new coaster at some point?

That'll be 2014 if we're working on the usual Merlin 3 year plan. I heard they were looking into a Zierer Free Fall coaster to replace Rameses (Aka Terminator / Mummy cross dark ride).

I'm confused to which of Zierer's products this is ???

Do you mean like Polar X-plorer at Legoland Denmark?

 

[Anonymous]

Last year Ice Age, this year Madagascar?

Aren't they due a new coaster at some point?

That'll be 2014 if we're working on the usual Merlin 3 year plan. I heard they were looking into a Zierer Free Fall coaster to replace Rameses (Aka Terminator / Mummy cross dark ride).

I'm confused to which of Zierer's products this is ???

Do you mean like Polar X-plorer at Legoland Denmark?

Yeah, like Polar X-Plorer and Verbolten.

 

[thefatone]

Depends if they follow the same investment cycle as the UK parks - seeing as Italy is struggling at the moment, and Garda was particularly badly hit this year in terms of dropping guest numbers etc.

Do feel sorry for the parks outside the UK, some people think we've got it bad, but least our parks get investment rather than the UK clones or being treated like they're Drayton Manor/Flamingoland.

 

[LiamC]

Last year Ice Age, this year Madagascar?

Aren't they due a new coaster at some point?

That'll be 2014 if we're working on the usual Merlin 3 year plan. I heard they were looking into a Zierer Free Fall coaster to replace Rameses (Aka Terminator / Mummy cross dark ride).

I'm confused to which of Zierer's products this is ???

Do you mean like Polar X-plorer at Legoland Denmark?

Yeah, like Polar X-Plorer and Verbolten.

I pray to God it's more like Verbolten than Polar X-Plorer :-\

 

[Anonymous]

Actually, Polar X-Plorer is an amazing little coaster. It's fast, forceful, has ejector airtime and the drop is good. It's a little short, but for a first attempt, Zierer got it spot on. Fantastic ride. Highly under rated in my opinion.

 

[BigAl]

Would they consider a free fall coaster from Intamin? Didn't someone mention that Alton Towers/Merlin had an agreement with Intamin that they were to be the only ones to have the coaster type for 'X' number of years (3 or 4, I think they said)? If that's true, has that time passed? If the park is owned by Merlin, can't they have a free fall coaster from Intamin anyway? Or weren't they very happy with Intamin's offering?

 

[Anonymous]

Would they consider a free fall coaster from Intamin? Didn't someone mention that Alton Towers/Merlin had an agreement with Intamin that they were to be the only ones to have the coaster type for 'X' number of years (3 or 4, I think they said)? If that's true, has that time passed? If the park is owned by Merlin, can't they have a free fall coaster from Intamin anyway? Or weren't they very happy with Intamin's offering?

I think it's more down to park preference in most cases, that or which company can offer the best product for the right amount of money.

As for the contract with Intamin, I believe that's over now as there is one being built at a new park in Italy.

 

[Dave]

And there is rumour the Gringots ride in the HP expansion is an intamin drop system.

 

[Alastair]

And there is rumour the Gringots ride in the HP expansion is an intamin drop system.

Would make sense as that fits in with the storyline of the book and the events in the film.

 

[Quetzal]

The last I heard, it seemed unlikely Merlin were ever going to buy another coaster off of Intamin. I'm not too sure of the reason.

A zierer drop coaster would be a nice addition. Now they've got rid of Palablu, perhaps that would also be a possible location?

 

[Wilsy]

I don't understand why parks would choose the Zierer ride system over Intamin's version, Zierer's drop looks so poor compared with Intamin's.

 

[BigAl]

That seems a little extreme! Intamin is one of the biggest ride manufacturers out there and to never do business with them again simply because they messed up the speed on Th13teen seems odd to me.

Everything about Th13teen besides the fact that they had to add trim brakes is very high quality and the drop mechanism works very well for the first of its kind. They did work quickly to amend their mistakes, even though there shouldn't really have been any.

It's funny that they messed up on the easiest aspect of the coaster, yet they got the world first drop element pretty much spot on! If the drop is superior from Intamin then they should still be the go-to people for a free fall drop coaster. I wouldn't know as I've never been on a Zierer version, though the drops seem to take longer which I would imagine would kind of detract from its overall impact.


Anyway, is this Madagascar show basically just going to be a replica of what Chessington has?

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Re: Gardaland

I don't understand why parks would choose the Zierer ride system over Intamin's version, Zierer's drop looks so poor compared with Intamin's.

It's far superior. It allows for heavy trains and therefore you can do more with the track. It's a far superior ride system, plus the trains are far more nimble and comfortable.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2

 

[John]

From what I've heard it's actually pretty good, the only issues are that it the support structure looks a mess and it takes longer to line up. The drop itself is apparently more intense than Thirteen's.

 

[Dave]

Indeed i have heard the drop on Zierer is more thrilling than Intamin, though obviously it spend a good couple of seconds lining up at the bottom then intamin's do and it looks ugly.

Most people i know who have done both seem to say the zierer drop rides better but Intamins is slicker.