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Gardaland

Good riddance to bad rubbish I say...

One of the worst rides ever created, though of course, better than Baco...
 
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Merlin's lack of creativity never ceases to amaze me, the fact that these are the people running our premium Theme Parks is an utter joke.
 
It's a shame, but there is of course some point to cross branding for Merlin.

Cheaper to produce gifts and merchandise, cheaper to advertise and (hopefully) cheaper to produce better quality themeing.
 
I don't see an issue with this really, as much as Don't agree with lots of what Merlin do, lots of theme park chains do this Six flags, cedar fair and Universal and Disney do it all the time. I would understand if it was Thorpe and Alton doing this but Gardaland is in a different company.
 
Maelstrom said:
I don't see an issue with this really, as much as Don't agree with lots of what Merlin do, lots of theme park chains do this Six flags, cedar fair and Universal and Disney do it all the time. I would understand if it was Thorpe and Alton doing this but Gardaland is in a different company.
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The thing is, all of those parks are branded as the same thing, and were built to weakly replicate each other. Merlin's parks aren't. No one wants them to all become one generic brand.

Look at it this way, all of Disney's resorts have some form of Magic Kingdom, with the castle in the middle. Merlin's parks are totally different, it would be understandable within the Legoland parks, but not in the rest. You wouldn't see Chessington get a clone of The Smiler. Its one thing the restaurants all becoming one generic brand, but the physical attractions is just a step too far.

I highly doubt this attraction will be of the same quality as Oblivion. The whole atmosphere building up to the drop is immense. This version won't even have a hole!
 
This shows the lack of creativity that either the marketing department of Merlin of the actual design department of Merlin have.

I just hope that it does result in a different theme or we will soon be calling our parks Merlin Theme Park: Alton, Merlin Theme Park: Lake Garda etc.
 
Are we certain that this is a clone? RCDB says 'custom'.

Could it be just that - lazy marketing?

Does Italy have a dive coaster in any of it's parks?
Italy is a big place... much like those bemoaning the loss of the Screamin' Squirrel, it might be a bit of a mission for the Italian theme park enthusiasts to get to another country to ride one.

Just a thought. I haven't been to Gardaland because of the expense involved in getting to/around Italy (compared to Germany, for example). Remember that this is primarily for the Italian audience, rather than enthusiasts in general who have 'been there, done that'.

But this poster is ridiculous. Sheikra with it's extra drop and inversion still does nothing for me. They'll have to do something really special to make this thing worth visiting for!
 
Laura said:
Does Italy have a dive coaster in any of it's parks?
Italy is a big place... much like those bemoaning the loss of the Screamin' Squirrel, it might be a bit of a mission for the Italian theme park enthusiasts to get to another country to ride one.
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I don't think there is anyone in the entire world who's bemoaning the loss of a Screaming Squirrel...

There isn't another Dive Machine in Italy, and the parks seem rather spread out, but I dunno how easy/difficult it is to get around via say public transport... Regardless, the marketing is pure lazy times from Merlin, and unfortunately it's something that we come to expect of them... Why be unique when you can rehash old ideas for a new market?
 
Might it be a 'mini' version like krake? Would Gardaland need a 1700pph monster? (I have no idea how many guests GL attract)
 
I fully expect it to be the mini model as it'll be much cheaper. I'm not sure about Garda's guest numbers, but I don't think they get so many that lower throughput will be too much of an issue. They could always give it a double station if they felt it necessary.
 
They get between 2.7-3m guests per year so similar to Alton. However i would expect a similar model to Krake as throughput would still be decent.

Also Merlin seem to have moved to a 4 year cycle now for Major rides, Gardaland will have had 4 year gap between raptor and the new coaster, Thorpe park have said their next coaster wont happen in 2015 as planned so lightly to be 2016, i would expect alton to have to wait until 2017 and then heide park 2018, this would mean Merlin is investing in only 1 £15m+ ride each year on a rolling cycle between these four parks. Plus most other theme park chains allow 4 years between large scale roller coasters, so makes sense for them to do this.
 
That just smacks of pure laziness!

Oblivion is a fantastic concept and theme and is obviously a very popular ride. However it relies on dropping into a massive hole in the ground to tie the name and theme together.

Trying to use that whole exact atmosphere on another ride (without a hole) is just lazy... I understand why they do it though - it's easy to use a proven marketing theme again in a different country - but it just seems incredibly lazy of Merlin.
 
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