I visited the Park last week so thought I would share my views on the park and its attractions. Also the Hunger games area and its two rides have now soft opened meaning that everything inside the park is now open.
Its been no secret but the park and the whole of the Dubai parks and Resorts complex hasn't got off to the best of starts and not attracted the visitor numbers they hoped with just 1m visitors in the first 6 moths of the year (Jan to June) they have now altered some of their ticket pricing, opening hours and marketing to drive visitor numbers up. The park is open during what they class as the winter season (mid sept-april) which is actually Dubai's peak season 11am-10pm, we got there about 12pm and the park was dead all afternoon, in fact I think their might have been more staff than visitors, however it did get busier after around 4pm and continued to do so into the evening.
Having been to the Disney & Universal parks in Both Florida and California numerous times I went with fairly low expectations of the park, however I was pleasantly surprised and thought Motiongate was an excellent park, very well presented and the park has been built to a high standard with some top notch theming. All rides had excellent air conditioned indoor themed queue lines, and some top quality rides. Yes there were a couple of rides that weren't that great (Hotel Transylvania & Ghost Busters) but even these had excellent theming. My thoughts below on a number of the rides-
Capitol Bullet Train- A Mack Launched coaster with backwards spike- Went on the coaster with fairly low expectations, especially after riding the Bluefire clone at IMG and the Ferrari world coasters a few days before. However I was presently surprised and the coaster packed a punch, great airtime on the reverse spike (especially in the back row) and on the coasters airtime hill, good Hang time in the loop and some good intensity around the rest of the layout. This would be the perfect coaster for Drayton Manor, something that wouldn't be massively expensive, would still give the park a Gimmick with the triple launch and reverse spike while still being a good coaster.
Pane Ariel Tour- This ride could be best described as a cross between a simulator like star tours and an immersive tunnel. After another excellently themed queue and pre-show your board a 20 person passenger vehicle which has a roof and large open front and sides, once the ride starts the shutter in front of the Vehicle opens and your move forward into a 3D domed screen, surrounding you fully with the 3D film and the vehicle moves much like star tours, the ride is very well done with a high quality 3D film and again the quality is up there with what you might find at Universal.
Dragon Gliders- A Mack powered suspended coaster - this ride is amazing and by far the parks best ride, with fantastic theming and effects and could have easily been a ride at Universal studios, its such a great system and hope more parks purchase one and put as much effort into the ride experience as Motiongate have. I have linked below a POV video by theme park review on youtube-
Madagascar Mad Pursuit- Add to dictionary launched infinity coaster- This is indoor dark style coaster, the ride coaster is a real surprise with a short intense launch to 80kph, the ride has no inversions but is full of airtime hills and lots of twists and turns, with theming lighting up as you pass (like on RnR coater at Disney or the Mummy) Video below by theme park review-