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Gardaland

That I can certainly agree on, like many other parks that came to be in the mid 70s to 80es Gardaland did not develop cohesive themed areas, same can be said of Towers with the inserting of Air in the forbidden valley or Rita in the dark forest. I personally think though that the mixing of themes has been done quite harmonically and does not look bad as you walk through the park, see the black hole itself where you can see both western and "futuristic" elements being sucked into it, I don't think we can say that looks bad, quite the opposite I would say... For what concerns the coaster itself I will not judge before riding it, I think Blivvy will be hard to top as it is my very fav ride at Alton but I keep my MIND OPEN as reviews seem to be pretty positive so far...
 
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siralgenon said:
Does Gardaland have themed areas or is it just themed attractions randomly placed next to each other?
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It is exactly that. There are one or two 'mini areas' but they're not really coherent. Some areas of the park are actually entirely unthemed. That said, it's a nice place to visit.

I believe Alton Towers has far more thematic coherence overall than Gardaland, though - even if the likes of Oblivion The Black Hole and Mammut are better themed rides than anything at Alton Towers.
 
Mammut being opposite Blue Tornado (and exiting into it's restaurant) is probably one of the most incohesive theme park moves ever...

There's some strange design choices as well, especially around the entrance, as there's no real focal point upon entering, very poorly laid out...

To be fair, the only real stand-out unthemed area is by Magic Mountain and the extended Wacky Worm, everything else has some substance to a degree, even if it's more of an amusement park style individually themed rides situation... I wouldn't dock a park points for that...
 
I've never been so can't comment too much but the individual ride theming does seem very good, far better than any other Merlin park has achieved. It will be interesting to see what route Merlin allow Towers to take with SW8's theme in this regard - will it be themed it fit well into Forbidden Valley or will it have more of a theme on its own? Anyway that is for another topic.

:)
 
Benzin said:
Mammut being opposite Blue Tornado (and exiting into it's restaurant) is probably one of the most incohesive theme park moves ever...

There's some strange design choices as well, especially around the entrance, as there's no real focal point upon entering, very poorly laid out...

To be fair, the only real stand-out unthemed area is by Magic Mountain and the extended Wacky Worm, everything else has some substance to a degree, even if it's more of an amusement park style individually themed rides situation... I wouldn't dock a park points for that...
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Well that is true to a degree, I think it is unfair to compare Gardaland with a mere amusement park with a mish mash of themes casually thrown in: many of their areas are actually pretty defined, think of their Western, Arabic, or English villages, or the Fantasy kingdom, they are not just gorgeous to look at but also very distinctive, the area of magic mountain sequoia and Colorado boat itself has a petty recognisable North American theme together with being one of the most photogenic in the park, not to mention the new space area that came to be thanx to Oblivion, that's pretty neat! In my view there are more lights than shadows... I truly think that Gardaland is one of the prettiest parks I have ever seen, if only but not just for its setting ( and I have travelled.. ;p )
 
Great news for Gardaland. Not only the Adventure Hotel for 2016, but a brand new themed area which is believed to be Kung Fu Panda themed. This area is going to be where the old Top Spin was between Magic Mountain and Outobruco Tour. There is going to be a new coaster which is a Fabbri spinner and I hope the surrounding area is rethemed.
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Current construction above and below is an image of what the coaster will probably look like.
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Overall, unlike many other enthusiasts, I am very impressed because despite Merlin still suffering from the Smiler incident, they are still investing.The hotel looks great and I am very excited to return to Gardaland in the future.
 
Investing in a Fabbri spinning coaster? There is one at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach! Very poor quality, very low throughput - completely inadequate for a park like Gardaland which suffers poor operations on all but the quietest days.

Merlin are also rolling out a Dreamworks IP area at Heide-Park for 2016, so it seems a major push.

Given that this is Merlin's most popular resort theme park, investment in Gardaland in many respects should be yet greater than it is.
 
I have been to Gardaland many times. This area of the park needed a retheme. Unlike the rest of the park, there was no theme properly shown and I hope the area spruces up.
 
Lordy said:
So they go from B&M Wing coaster, to B&M Dive Machine, to Fabbri Spinner?!

Wtf Merlin...
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This is what I hate most about theme park enthusiasts. They take everything for granted. When something is not as perfect as they want, they moan. To be honest, it is very good that Gardaland is getting a large hotel, roller coaster and themed area all for 2016 after the Smiler incident. Gardaland needed a spinning coaster and it increases the park capacity by about 500 I think.
 
Not really, the throughput of the coaster is probably the same as the Top Spin, but it's a worse ride.
 
Installing a low throughput ride actually decreases the number of rides the average guest will get on. The overall park throughput might increase but for those guests that do chose to ride they spend more time queuing and therefore get on less.

Someone I know who worked at Legoland when the Jungle Coaster closed noticed this. And that was a Mack (all be it a heavily mutilated one)
 
But they're giving it an IP, which will no doubt draw everyone over that and make it busy...

A Fabbri spinner though? Even if it wont be the worst ride in the park its still a rubbish choice... It's just cheap... Which is probably why Merlin got it in...

Adding stuff purely to have something new on park is not the way to go, look at what Thorpe churn out to do that...
 
I think the model was not the best one chosen but the park needed a spinning coaster. No spinning coasters have large throughputs per hour. Even customs like Sonic Spinball at Alton Towers have throughputs of just 750 people per hour. When you think about the Smiler crash this year and how nearly all the parks have had their attendance decreased, Merlin is pumping in lots of money. Thorpe Park is getting a big dark ride. Alton Towers is getting a large scale revamped ride and a Food Loop. Heide Park are getting a new themed area. Chessington is getting a new accommodation site, role climbing course and a revamped area of the zoo. And then there is Gardaland. They are getting a brand new hotel that from promotional pictures, looks very well themed. They are also getting a new themed area to a big IP and a coaster.

When enthusiasts moan about Merlin, they forget they are a business and their investments are made for reasons. A small coaster would probably cost around 1 million and therefore is a large sum of money. Merlin are not mad and know what they are doing. As I hear enthusiasts moan, I would want them to have the chance own a theme park company and see how hard it is to run.
 
As a theme, Kung Fu Panda’s got potential. Aside from it being an intellectual property, there are some beautiful areas themed to China. Mystic East hasn’t been maintained too well, but it’s a stunning design. Dream World in Australia already has an area themed to Kung Fu Panda. The rides are nothing special, but as a whole it looks fantastic. With a Chinese area you can use lots of bright colours without it looking tacky. Looking at that coaster, the artwork on the cars looks very nice. But as Dan says, they’re cloning a ride from Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach.

When Merlin took over Gardaland, it looked like it could be an International park on a level with Port Aventura. Since then Gardaland’s added a second gate attraction (Sea Life) and substantially improved the quality of their coasters. Despite this, their visitor numbers and ticket prices have both fallen. If you see Gardaland as a major regional theme park I don’t think they’re doing too badly, but it seems a shame when they could have been more.
 
Have you got the figures to show how ticket prices and attendance has decreased? If you think Gardaland is quiet, you need to go to Movieland.
 
ThemeParkCrafter said:
I am very impressed because despite Merlin still suffering from the Smiler incident, they are still investing.The hotel looks great and I am very excited to return to Gardaland in the future.
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They aren't suffering.

ThemeParkCrafter said:
To be honest, it is very good that Gardaland is getting a large hotel, roller coaster and themed area all for 2016 after the Smiler incident.
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Gardaland and Alton Towers have separate budgets and the money for these additions would have been spent before the crash.

ThemeParkCrafter said:
Merlin are not mad and know what they are doing.
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I admire your optimism.
 
Martin said:
They aren't suffering.

I admire your optimism.
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Merlin are actually a very good company. Their parks are cleaner than some other parks and give parks large investments (unlike Six Flags who just care about Magic Mountain). They produce very good and well themed hotels (obviously not Disney standard). I might sound optimistic but once you compare Merlin to other theme park chains, they are very good with the money they have.
 
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