Tag: Intamin

The legacy of Dinocittà

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The History of Cinecittà World

The history of Rome as a film location dates back to 1937, when the film city Cinecittà was founded. Equipped with what were then the most modern studios in Europe, a backlot and a copy studio, around 300 films were produced by 1943. Bombed by the Allies and looted by the Nazis, the film production was moved to Venice. After the end of the war, Cinecittà served as a DP camp for two years before the film production site was returned to its original purpose. In the 1950s the Cinecittà Studios experienced a golden age, probably also due to the film funding of the Italian state, and served as the film location for important Hollywood films such as Ben-Hur.

Due to constantly increasing demand and limited studio capacities, the producer Dino de Laurentiis founded Dinocittà, at that time the largest film studio in the world, also in the south of the Italian capital. The studio mainly produced historic and monumental films such as Barabbas (Italy 1961, Richard Fleischer), Waterloo (Italy/USSR 1969, Sergei Bondarchuk) and John Huston’s mammoth work La Bibbia (Italy 1966). However, due to the reduction of subsidies at the beginning of the 1970s, the film studio was not able to survive for long, and so in 1973 the land was sold to the Italian state. From then on Dino de Laurentiis produced in the United States and the Dinocittà remained unused; although not forgotten. Plans in the early 2000s to run the studios under the name Roma Studios were quickly discarded and Cinecittà Holding took over the site.

Originally planned for 2012, the movie park Cinecittà World opened its doors for the first time in the summer of 2014. Unpaid bills and a lack of visitors, despite the surprisingly low target of 1.5 million visitors, quickly left the park in a negative light. Short-notice cancellations of seasonal events and the planned winter opening quickly gave rise to doubts as to whether the park would ever open again. However, after restructuring over the winter months, the park opened punctually at Easter.

Tour of the park

Through an elaborately designed entrance portal, one enters the park directly into Cinecittà Street, the park’s main street, inspired by New York of the 1920s. Although the set is only of generic design, i.e. not based on any film, this area has a lot of charm as long as it does not look like a ghost town due to a lack of visitors. The design is generally of a very high quality and equipped with all kinds of details, so that the first and last impression of the park is inevitably a positive one.

Aktium

To the left of Main Street the set extends around Aktium, an elaborately designed Super Splash from Mack Rides. It is supposed to depict the naval battle at Actium, in which Octavian, the later Emperor Augustus, asserted himself against Marcus Antonius and the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII, thus securing sole rule in the Roman Empire. As violent as the battle was, the area around the ride is just as impressive and once again you can see that the Cinecittà World is a place where quality is the name of the game.

After you have left the spacious queue behind you, the journey can start right away. Without much foreplay, you go directly up the first lift hill, where you approach the first slope in a rough curve. Similar to various larger Spillwateranter installations, this runs directly down into the water without any great gimmicks. One turn later, the boat climbs up again and also makes a rough left turn. Where the ride showed itself to be quite untypical for this type of roller coaster the true character is revealed in the second shot. With a lot of momentum you pass a valley and take off on the adjacent hill before you get in contact with the water. After a little sailing through the canal you soon reach the station and are bid farewell by the staff to thunderous applause.

Aktium is a nice spillwater replacement, but it shows the limits of this roller coaster and reveals the reason why almost all other rides of this type use turntables instead of curves for the turning manoeuvres. Apart from the angular curves the ride runs without any other problems, although the level of wetness could have been a bit higher.

Studio 1

Across the Piazza Dino de Laurentiis with all its fountains and fountains we now enter Studio 1, where a magic show took place. Except for the time-consuming mind-reading number (which was only presented in Italian), the show was very professionally staged, but unfortunately not as worth seeing as the comparable show at Movieland Park.

Altair CCW-0204

Directly behind it is Altair CCW-0204, a roller coaster that many people are probably already familiar with from the English amusement park Thorpe Park near London. Unlike the former record-breaker, however, the ride takes passengers up to the starting height of 33m a little faster and without a failure-prone chain lift. After an exciting start, the passengers are then thrown through the rollover elements in trains without shoulder restraints. A massive spaceship serves as an oversized station building, in which mankind returns to earth after more than four millennia and has to ask the question who is the alien, the creatures that developed here, or we who left them in the 22nd century?

While the background story of Altair offers plenty of room for philosophical discussions, the train, whose restraint system is very similar to that of the Divertical water rollercoaster at Mirabilandia, ascends the lift hill directly. At the top, you pass the top of the hill quite leisurely and immediately drop down to the ground. With a high speed and a high pressure you go through a steep left turn before you shoot up the first inversion, a loop. This is traversed with the usual intensity, followed by a small hill with some airtime. In the valley below, the Cobra Roll is initiated, which is crossed just as confidently. After three rollovers, the half time of the ride is rung in with two corkscrews.  After another left turn above the first downhill run, the quadruple heartline roll in the back of the ride is initiated. Because of the freer sitting position, you can complete this with a slight lateral overhang and thus the feeling of always being able to fall out. The train then passes through a last left turn and then the final inversion, a right leading heartline roll towards the brakes. In contrast to Colossus in Thorpe Park, this roll is a bit disappointing, as it is identical to the previous rolls and therefore offers no more surprises.

Altair is a great roller coaster with excellent ride characteristics and a significantly improved seating position compared to the original. However, Colossus also has its strengths, which are mainly reflected in the grandiose final roll and the better integration into the terrain; it is simply more photogenic, although Altair is by no means photo-shy either. The modified first drop is a great experience and the lack of vibrations in looping and the subsequent cobra roll, as well as the absence of a queue to our visit point, make the ride a guarantee for repeat rides.

Erawan

Through the pretty western town of Ennio’s Creek, named after Ennio Morricone, the composer of numerous Italo western scores, where a scary walkthrough is to educate during the season, and past Studios 3,4 and 5 (with a 4D cinema in Studio 4 and a children’s playground in Studio 3), we head towards the most impressive ride in Cinecittà World, the Erawan Freefall Tower. This visual treat includes four lanes, two of which offer pure falling pleasure while standing, while the other two lanes entertain their passengers while seated. All gondolas are tilted forward before the fall, which generally ensures a great and outstanding ride experience. But even apart from the special features Erawan is a magnificent tower. The pure fall reaches similar qualities as Apocalypse from the English amusement park Drayton Manor, which is in my opinion the best freefall tower in Europe. The only difference is that you are one experience poorer due to the absence of the hilarious standing gondola with corridor. Erawan is undoubtedly the best designed giant drop far and wide and also offers a great ride that you should not miss.

Darkmare

Just a few metres from Erawan is the entrance to Darkmare, the family rollercoaster of Cinecittà World featuring a very dark story. Thematically one takes up Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, which was to be filmed in the 50s in Studio Hall 2. However, there were numerous strange accidents and finally a fire, whereupon the shooting was stopped and nothing happened afterwards.

After years of standstill we venture into the hall and experience a wild ride through hell, which begins with a short descent in a right turn, into the lift hill of the lift. You pass a mirror, which is admittedly a really great effect. Passing numerous, artistically valuable projections, all of which make Van Helsing’s Factory from Movie Park Germany look old, you quickly reach the ceiling of the hall, whereupon the train immediately plunges to the ground in a steep left-hand bend. Regardless of losses, the first valley is crossed with outstanding intensity, whereupon the train soon gains altitude. After a curve change, the train passes through a narrow downward helix and winds its way to the other end of the hall in a zigzag curve combination. After a short ascent you reach the freefall segment, where a demon now shows itself and puts its wings around us. Shortly afterwards we are already one level lower and leave the segment very quickly. Now follows a narrow left turn, which is immediately joined by the final turn to the right. Shortly afterwards we reach the station and are once again bid an enthusiastic farewell.

Darkmare is really, really, really damn good! In contrast to the prototype Th13teen of the English amusement park Alton Towers, the ride has no funny backward part after the drop segment, but the rest of the track is much better. In addition, the general design of the ride in its dark comic style is really outstanding and the projections are just perfect. The large and demonically well darkened hall makes the compact ride look three times as big as it actually is and extends the ride in equal measure. The free fall is also quite ok, but can be a bit too much for first-time riders, after all the ride is not lacking in power anyways. But you shouldn’t take such a gloomy view, because Darkmare is definitely the best roller coaster of the park and one of the best roller coasters in the country; so it’s a great ride with a very high repetition urge.

Aquila IV

Opposite Teatro 2 is the submarine Aquila IV, which was used in a German submarine film and a music video by the band Bon Jovi. Of course it is not Das Boot, because it is still located in the Bavaria Filmstadt not far from Munich, but the U-900 from the film of the same name with Atze Schröder in the leading role. Admittedly, the scenery builders did a good job, but we couldn’t explain to ourselves what the meaningless tour was supposed to be in Italian. Without language skills you should avoid Aquila IV and even with language skills you really shouldn’t expect too much, especially since the waiting time is very long. On the other hand, a visit in a real submarine is really recommendable; we at least wished to return to the U-571 of Movieland Studios.

SpacExpress

In addition to the SpacExpress, an immersive tunnel of Simworx, which however was not yet in operation at the time of our visit, the children’s kart track Velocità Luce and the entrance to the children’s land Sognolabio are also located in this area. This area is very colourful and offers some nice rides for children made in Italy, as well as a very annoying soundtrack and a nice splash battle.

Pictures Cinecittà World

Conclusion Cinecittà World

Cinecittà World is a good amusement park that has made quality its top priority; here neither the design nor the rides are of inferior quality. Unfortunately, sometimes the quantity is still missing, because you can only manage a whole day in the park if you actually watch every single show, eat comfortably in one of the restaurants and take multiple rides. The Movieland Park shows how it’s done, but at the Cinecittà World their own professionalism still stands in the way. In no other Italian park you could meet as much staff as here, neither in the shows nor in the attractions. Although this creates a good image, it is known to be somewhat more expensive than the one-person operation of the Mirabilandia. In addition, Cinecittà World is based on something you know and which is also used in numerous film parks or film studios with guided tours, but it is questionable whether they are on the right track; because sometimes they only show larger generic sets without any actual film reference with suitably embedded attractions. A larger reference to own productions would therefore be advisable, but one does not necessarily have to give up the intended concept. I’m curious how the Cinecittà World will develop in the next few years, because the park has potential and already offers a lot of quality; a condition that one would wish for other parks around Rome.

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Cinecittà World / Il Viaggio dei due Runner Day 5

A not so great visit

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Preface

After our day’s start in Fiabilandia we reached the car park of the amusement park Mirabilandia at late noon. Although our visiting day fell on Easter Sunday, the general rush of visitors was limited, but not the waiting times and the eagerness of the tourists/residents to jump the queue. Yes, it was not a pleasant visit to Mirabilandia, although the attractions are first class, but more about that later.

The History of Mirabilandia

We start the review with a look at the history of the amusement park, which opened in 1992. The park was founded as a project of a group of investors consisting of Situr-Finbrescia (46%), San Paolo Finance (44%) and Publitalia 80 (10%) who, with the simple formula “tourist resort + amusement park = cash cow”, completely failed in their exaggerated expectations and were unable to attract even a third of the two million visitors they had hoped for. As the operating company was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1996, they sold the park in late autumn of the year to the Löffelhardt-Casoli Group, a joint venture between Phantasialand co-founder Gottlieb Löffelhardt and Giancarlo Casoli, one of the owners of the former Italian amusement ride manufacturer S.D.C., who massively expanded the park in the following years. As a result, the number of visitors also grew to over 1.5 million. After a few years Löffelhardt withdrew from the business and Casoli took over the patronage, before Mirabilandia was sold to the Spanish group Parques Reunidos in 2006.

Tour of the park

After leaving the ticket offices behind, you enter the park over a bridge, similar to the English amusement park Thorpe Park near London. The skyline here is discreetly restrained, but with the perfectly placed Cobra Roll of the inverter Katun to the right of the bridge it is already very impressive. From here there is a path leading into the Far West Valley, which was still largely under construction, and the actual entrance area of Mirabilandia. This turns out to be a pirate’s nest full of details and accommodates some shops, where you can get fast passes, which were almost a necessary treat to be able to ride anything in this park.

To my own confusion, Mirabilandia had arbitrary opening and closing times of the rides, which meant that many attractions didn’t open until noon or even later, or closed much earlier. This in turn resulted in long waiting times throughout the park. On the one hand, I can understand that some smaller parks only gradually put their rides into operation or sometimes even open certain themed areas after a certain time, but I have never seen such a measure in a large amusement park before. It also explains why Gardaland, in return, advertises to close the queue of rides at the end of its opening hours.

Divertical

Passing the Pepsi Theatre, where, how could it be otherwise, a magic show is shown, and the musical stage in front of it, we head towards the Divertical water coaster, which already looks very striking from afar. By now at the latest, one becomes aware of how high the ride is and how wasteful it is with the space it has been placed on; however, this does not make the ride look aesthetic at all, which is mainly due to the sparingly placed decoration. On the other hand, the rear part of the ride adorns the insanely long access path to the completely out of place interactive dark ride Reset, which is quite positive and probably attracts more people than ever before to this corner of Mirabilandia.

After you have been asked to come up to the station and get into the speedboat, the trip on Divertical can start immediately. As the vertical lift of the ride is still a long way off, you bob a bit through the canal, which interestingly enough creates a good whitewater feeling. After all, the waves almost hit the boat again and again and make you jump away by the whirled up water drops. As soon as the lift is reached, you quickly rise to the starting height of 60m, whereby the curvature of the lift is interestingly hardly noticeable at all. As the view from up here is not very interesting, you are soon pushed over the top of the hill. On the following 45° slope you have enough time to notice how fast this ride actually is. The spray refreshes you and soon after you race through the first pool only to drive over a hill without slowing down. Here you take off a little bit before you throw yourself into a brisk curve. Hoping to slow down a little bit by the following block area, you drive through it without any braking effect and are then released into a right turn. A quick downward helix follows. However, it then goes over into a hill, which initiates the final shot of the ride. Well soaked, you are released back into the channel and reach the station shortly afterwards.

Contrary to my expectations, Divertical is a really awesome water coaster, which gives a feeling of speed like no other ride before. The ride is just fast, which I personally only noticed while crossing the first pool. Considering the starting height of the world’s largest water roller coaster, this is actually in the nature of the ride; at least I have rarely experienced such a speed rush. Moreover, the ride is made with a perfect finish, which means that the friction losses are not really significant, which in turn benefits the speed.

iSpeed

Also addressing the central theme of speed is the Blitz Coaster iSpeed from Intamin, a catapult launch coaster with LSM modules, which replaces the aging wooden coaster Sierra Tonante. The Spanish company’s first project was the self-titled “Il Rollercoaster #1”, a thoroughly fast roller coaster with a more than modest capacity.

Whilst at Divertical we had to queue for a short time, our less wasteful and self-horny lifestyle took revenge by not buying a fast pass. Now we were allowed to wait here for more than an hour in the desolate waiting area of the roller coaster, only to be constantly passed over by some brats of the thoroughly anti-social tourists of the Italian Adriatic. While in the other Italian parks nobody pushed in front of us and even let one of us pass by voluntarily to keep groups together, here it was simply a plague without equal. If you want to be reasonable in Mirabilandia, you better practice becoming a narcissist in advance by creating selfies en masse and treat yourself to a fast pass! In theory it’s not that expensive anyway, especially if you have bought an annual ticket for one of the other Parques Reunidos parks (e.g. Movie Park Germany, Attractiepark Slagharen, …) and didn’t pay any entrance fee anyway; at least you save yourself the wait with the disgustingly anti-social tourists, while in other parks you become a disgustingly anti-social tourist just by buying a fast pass.

But now let’s get to the ride description of the LSM roller coaster iSpeed, because as soon as you finally reach the stairs to the station it’s going quite fast. Once you sit down in the train and close the safety bars, the train is pushed forward slightly before the impulse is taken up and the train accelerates more and more. Now the train climbs up the top hat vertically before you cross it with a great view of the log flume Autosplash. Now you plunge vertically towards the ground, make a short turn to the right and pass the first valley with a lot of pressure. Parallel to the station you cross a hill, where you are lifted out of your seat. Another S-curve is now made with a lot of momentum, which merges into a tight right turn. On the following hill a leisurely turn follows, which releases you into a slight left turn above the station. All of a sudden a corkscrew is introduced, which throws you around with an incredible intensity. On a further hill you cross the launch track, whereupon you can take a deep breath again in the following steep turn. Rather leisurely the train shoots through a wide right turn, which shortly afterwards changes into the heartline roll, which can be seen from the outside. After another steep turn follows a short block brake. You leave it in an equally steep left turn, followed by a small hill and the final left turn towards the station.

Even though the initial acceleration of the launch is rather lax and hardly comparable to the manufacturer’s hydraulic and friction wheel drives, the ride offers a hodgepodge of exciting elements paired with really high pressure and speed. Especially the corkscrew, which can hardly be seen from the outside, simply surprised me during the ride and also the part of the track after the block brake, which always seemed insignificant on videos, has its moments and fits perfectly into the overall experience of the ride. The roller coaster itself, on the other hand, is unfortunately not as convincing as the actual ride itself, thanks to its lean design and low capacity.

Leprotto Express

Directly opposite, in the children’s land of Bimbopoli, you will find Mirabilandia’s next roller coaster, the Leprotto Express. This is a simple children’s roller coaster by the manufacturer L&T Systems, whose layout describes a simple figure eight in a constant alternation of up and down movements. Due to the crowd, the ride only went one lap.

Rexplorer

Via the island with the Acapulco cliff divers show you reach the Dinoland area, which was redesigned in 2014. Apart from the transformation of existing rides, e.g. the telecombat ride featuring an inclined ride or the popular children’s monorail, a money printing machine, I meaning a children’s driving school, and a Magic Bike by Zamperla also found their way into the themed area. But the most important destination for us was the oldest roller coaster of Mirabilandia, the Powered Coaster Rexplorer.

The journey begins with a wide bend to the left, followed by a leisurely climb past some artificial rocks. At the top, the train goes through a downward helix through the rock formation before climbing up a steeper straight. Now the train goes through a wide downward right-hand bend, passes under the track it has just passed and surrounds the first downward helix in a left-hand bend. With much more momentum you cross the station and complete another lap through the course.

Theoretically, the ride on the Rexplorer would have been quickly dealt with, because unlike many other rides at Mirabilandia, this ride has a slightly higher capacity by nature and the queue itself was manageable. However, Mirabilandia would not be Mirabilandia if they did not mess up this ride as well. The dispatching was a mess and was further protracted by the lack of numerical knowledge of the staff. After waiting until all passengers of the newly arrived train had left the station area, about half of the train was filled with Fast Pass people, but they all had to be counted and checked individually. Of course, the staff constantly miscounted, which was particularly noticeable after a change of staff. Only after each of the Fast Pass owners had taken their seat the normal waiting people were let in. The checking of the restraints and the ride itself, on the other hand, was quickly completed. However, the one-man operation at the ride almost always took 5 or more minutes during loading for one cycle.

El Dorado Falls and Gold Digger

As the construction work in Mirabilandia’s new themed area Far West Valley was still in full swing during the visit, the only remaining attractions in operation were the Spillwater El Dorado Falls of the water rides pioneer O.D. Hopkins – which, however, struggled with constant failures and did not make good form due to the one-boat operation – and the Wild Mouse Gold Digger, formerly known as Pakal. Since 50% of the cars were also equipped with Fast Passers, we unfortunately had enough time to experience every corner of the small, quite desolate, queue and thus invested almost an hour for the Italian-style Wild Mouse.

The ride is actually quite entertaining, because after you have made the hairpin bends in the upper level, seven in all, you go down one level, where a big drop is followed by another serpentine curve. This is also followed by a steeper gradient and a hairpin bend. As is well known, the two successive slopes are the most fun for wild mice and therefore we will not do without them here either. A last narrow bend and a small dip follow before you are led back to the station.

Katun

Through a spacious temple complex you can reach the Inverted Coaster Katun, which has been turning its passengers upside down several times since the millennium. With a height of 50m and a length of 1200m Katun has always been the largest ride of its kind in Europe and is fortunately scary enough to keep the waiting time low despite the one-train operation. Interestingly enough, the second train was actually sent on its way towards the end of the day, but probably only to finish on time.

The ride begins with a short left turn out of the station and into the ride’s lift. As soon as the train has reached its initial height, it turns to the left and at the same time makes a rather steep descent. You cross the first valley with a lot of pressure before you are turned upside down for the first time in the huge loop. Once back on ground level, the train shoots up again and turns on its own axis in a zero-g roll. To enable the ingenious placement of the Cobra Roll at the lake on the right side of the entrance, there are now a few meters of track missing, which were solved by a steep curve close to the ground and leading to the right. In the following inversion figure you shoot up half a loop, then turn to the side and do the same again in reverse order. Of course with extremely positive centrifugal forces, which should not be underestimated in the following valley. Also with a lot of pressure one turns a round in a wide upward helix at the end of which the block brake of the ride is reached. This is passed without any reduction of the momentary speed, which leads to an immediate plunge into the abyss. Almost straight ahead the first corkscrew is introduced, which whirls you with full force to the right into a tunnel. You then leave this tunnel into another corkscrew, but this time in the opposite direction. A short hill releases you into the final downward helix of the ride, whereupon the station is reached immediately.

Katun is a great Inverted Coaster of the bigger type, which plays many huge and well coordinated inversion figures in a layout worth experiencing, at a decent speed. The play of forces should not be underestimated yet it is still quite smooth compared to the smaller European versions of this roller coaster type.

Max Adventures Master Thai, Eurowheel and Hot Wheels Stunt Show

While waiting in the queue of the Katun roller coaster we could already observe that the neighbouring Max Adventures Master Thai roller coaster had a technical defect and was evacuated accordingly. Even one hour later there was no sign of a reopening of the ride, so we headed towards the prominent landmark of Mirabilandia. Also at the 90m high Eurowheel a long and tough queue was waiting for us. But we didn’t want to miss a ride on what used to be the highest Ferris wheel in Europe because we were so tired of waiting somewhere else. As expected, only half of the gondolas of the Ferris Wheel were equipped, which gave us plenty of time to take a closer look at the unconventional supporting structure of the Ferris Wheel. During the ride we could watch the Hot Wheels Stunt Show from above, the finale of which was the passage of a huge looping.

Pictures Mirabilandia

Closing Words

Also from above we could watch some test rides on Max Adventures Master Thai, so we immediately walked back to the ride, only to find the doors closed again. We still had half an hour left, so we decided to go on another ride on Katun. We couldn’t foresee that we wouldn’t be able to go on another ride after that, so we could only ride six of the seven roller coasters and the Ferris wheel. A disgrace beyond compare, which made the actually brilliant amusement park Mirabilandia the last flop. It is obvious why Gardaland is the most successful amusement park in Italy and why Parques Reunidos should reconsider their strategy.

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Il Viaggio dei due Runner Day 4 / Mirabilandia

Hooray, I’m in the movie

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Movieland Park

The Movieland Park, founded in 2003, is the latest project of the Amicabile family, who already laid the foundation stone for today’s Canevaworld Resort in 1965 with a dance club. The resort now consists of the water park Caneva Aquapark, the Disko Night Festival, the dinner show Medieval Times and the Rock Star Restaurant, as well as the theme park.

After having bought the tickets at the central ticket offices at the water park, we follow the path along the high street in order to get to the actual forecourt of the film park. Until the previous season you entered the park through the big studio gate, now two buses serve as the new entrance portal of the Movieland Park.

Tomb Raider Machine

As a result, there is now a separate entrance to the Tomb Raider Machine, a Windshear by Zamperla, which is generously staged with water, fire, fog effects and some drama. Basically five different ride programs can be driven here, which are randomly determined by a selection disk, as long as the Ride-Op does not brake the disk before and then adjusts it to a mission. Depending on the selected mission, the duration, intensity and effects vary. The show of the system is more exciting than the ride itself, which is a bit jerky.

Horror House

By walking through the old entrance portal, you find yourself right on the Main Street of the park, in whose corner house there is something gloomy or better said in whose cellar there is something pitch dark hidden. Since its opening, the Horror House offers the park guests a year-round scare haunt, thus a non-temporary cabinet of horrors with actors, similar to the Krüeger Hotel in the Spanish theme park Parc d’atraccions Tibidabo in Barcelona. The queue line sets the mood of the attraction, which gains momentum in the completely bloodstained lift.

Released directly into the darkness you follow the red lights of the surveillance cameras through absolutely dark corridors until you slowly but surely get used to the darkness. From time to time we now pass through larger scenes, all of which have a reference to horror film classics and have been elaborately designed. I especially liked the cold room scene with the body bags, which first blocked the way through movement and then showed their full effect through the use of a stroboscope and Freddy Krüeger from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. Fortunately a group of two people caught up with us in the last room in front of the stairs leading up. They took their way with the camera light of their smartphone and thus took away the atmosphere. At the end, Michael Myers from the Halloween movies waited with a chainsaw for us. Worried that it will continue as long up here as it did in the basement, we found the exit to the attraction.

The Horror House is a very atmospheric and beautifully designed haunt with an amazingly long lead time. The 600 seconds given by Movieland Park itself can only be reached if you are guided through the corridors with your hands on the shoulder of the person in front. It took two of us a little longer to find our way in the pitch dark corridors. The actors do their job very well, even though you can almost always guess what will happen right away. Compared to the similar Krüeger Hotel I like the staging and the story line in the Parc d’atraccions Tibidabo a little bit better, yet here you have a truly outstanding attraction that you definitely shouldn’t miss.

Addams House

However, it should be clearly pointed out that a visit under the age of 14 is not permitted. But also that is not a problem, as there is at least another access down to the cellar in the Addams House. Here, you pass through some rooms and corridors of the big horror haunt and get brilliant entertainment by Zombie-Hitler. Alone this moment is so delightfully abstruse that you inevitably have to love the park. After a short time, but with a really wide grin on your face, you leave the attraction. Understandably, the access to the Horror House is closed during the Addams House playtime.

Overdrive

On the back of Studio 1 a live set is currently located, on which the film Overdrive, generously advertised in the park, is recorded. In principle, this is a small stunt show disguised as a film recording, in which some park visitors are also involved. Some stunts will be shown, then the footage will be cut and at the end the film will end up on YouTube or the park’s website. Two takes per day are recorded, but the times were not advertised, so we both missed them.

The Illusionist

But we were able to watch the magic show The Illusionist, which is roughly based on the film Prestige. The show shows some well known magic tricks, which are accompanied by all kinds of effects. Unfortunately, I couldn’t follow the story very well, as we were a bit late for the show. Nevertheless, the staging is quite well done and the theatre itself is impressive.

Terminator 2 – 5D

Right next door you will find Terminator 2 – 5D, an Interactive Theatre, where you shoot with pistols at a screen, but also at plastic figures. The terminator animatronics are convincing, as well as the numerous additional effects. Unfortunately, you can’t see much of the screen from the side. The game is fun and certainly worth playing, even though the game is hard to beat and therefore ends with Game Over before you reach the end.

U-571

Passing the Fazenda di Zorro or the remaining entrances of the Rodeo Grill Restaurant (which was decoupled from the park in 2012 and was supposed to entertain visitors after the opening hours of the two parks (and during lunchtime in the Movieland Park), however after two years of operation it was sold and finally renamed to Ristoburger Zero21), our way heads towards the submarine simulator U-571.

In a submarine bunker we first wait for more recruits to be allowed to enter some time later by our commanding officer. He informs us, while a staggering sailor is joking with a bottle full of rum behind him. During this show the Allies suddenly attack and several bombs fall into the harbour basin. We have to flee, but all roads are blocked and so we approach the submarine of the model U-571 at a rapid pace, climb down, hurry through the underwater vessel and take a seat in a chamber while the boat is submerging.

Our drunken comrade now tries to save us both and the submarine and tells me to open and close some valves in it; meanwhile we dive further down, but something is leaking. Full of haste I now try to comply to the specifications and getting loaded with water every now and then, while the rest of the recruits are shaken a little during our dive. At one point, one of the valves is gone and the amount of water can hardly be stopped. However, like a miracle, we manage to surface without being discovered by the Allies.

The U-571 is a spectacular attraction with a breathtaking pre-show and outstanding actors who really put a lot of effort into staging this attraction. Unfortunately, there is not much to see of the replica of the submarine in scale 1:1, as you run through the boat rather quickly. The actual simulator is just an old movie rocket without a movie, shaky benches and a brilliant, yet extremely oppressive atmosphere. If you are sitting in the front left of the boat, you have absolutely no chance to avoid the water, so that you get drenched on a similar level as jumping into the neighbouring Lake Garda.

Troncosaurus

If your clothes are still dry, take a ride on the Troncosaurus log flume, which looked more like a multi-storey car park than a splashy tree trunk ride down two drops before the redesign of the dinosaur area at the bottom of the park. Nowadays, the ride looks just as good as the rest of the area, which is now an ideal children’s area with matching sound.

After leaving the station, you head towards the first lift hill in a wide right turn. When arriving at the top, the track turns around below a later section of the track, whereby the entrance and exit run almost next to each other. Thereafter, the first descent of the log flume follows, whereby the transition into the lower canal is quite abrupt and makes for very good splash. After that you find yourself in another long right-hand turn, which leads parallel to the first lift hill into the second ascent. At the top, you follow the same route as on the lower floor. Instead of taking the second drop, you head straight on to the other side of the lift, where you cross a left-hand bend and slowly but surely approach the second drop. The run-out section is not quite as wet as at the small slope earlier on. A further left turn is then taken before approaching the station.

Troncosaurus is a very special log flume made by L&T Systems, which not only accommodates as much water as possible in as little space as possible, but also makes good use of the applied technology and is as energy-saving as possible, e.g. by using only one water circuit. The ride itself is quite nice and the wetness level is quite respectable, especially since water is constantly dripping into the boat even beyond the two shooting runs.

BC-10 Airlines

Next door, the BC-10 Airlines boat swing is swinging upwards, though the original swing of the former Looping Starship Aerovarvet in the Swedish leisure park Liseberg was significantly higher. When the looping madness of the 80s started to subside, Liseberg rebuilt the Looping Starship by removing the counter weight and the shoulder harnesses. Later, it disappeared from the landscape for several years before Movieland Park took pity on it and bought and redesigned the ride. In its current form, the boat swing entertains passengers in three different cruising programmes, although there is no clear difference. Unfortunately, the ship always brakes a little as soon as it has reached the maximum swing. The tight lap bars and the ride circle are reducing the fun slightly.

Brontojet

Also rescued from disappearance was the Schwarzkopf City Jet Brontojet, which had previously entertained its passengers for several years in the English amusement park Lightwater Valley and was briefly operated by the Bemboom family in Loudoun Castle and then stored. In 2010, Brontojet was opened as the second roller coaster of Movieland Park.

After taking a seat in the comfortable train, a short track section leads us straight to the spiral lift of the ride, which supplies the driving motors of the two cars with power by a conductor rail and thus continuously transports us upwards. At the top, we can enjoy the view of Lake Garda for a short time before we head towards the ground. With full power we cross the first valley, where after we rise again. Just below the first descent, we now drive around the spiral lift in a gentle left turn, before we throw ourselves back into a steep turn towards the ground. Following a turn near the ground, the trail continues several metres upwards and descends as quickly as possible in an oval downhill helix, carried out in the finest Bavarian curve style. Right after a very abrupt transition from an inclined curve into a straight line, which is certainly not laid out according to the heart line, you immediately stop at the powerful brake of the course.

The Brontojet is a truly intense roller coaster with, aside from the transition to the brake, absolutely great ride characteristics. For me it was the second City Jet ride after Nigloland’s great Bobsleigh coaster. Here, the ride was also very convincing, even though the design of the ride is far more minimalistic. The Brontojet was my 400th roller coaster in Europe.

Bront-o-Ring and Octopus

Not quite as spectacular is the Bront-o-Ring, a small powered children’s roller coaster with a triangular layout, whose train is supplied with power via a cable in the middle of the ride. Here you turn round after round for a longer time interval, until you are happy to get off again. Opposite is Octopus, a stylish polyp ride by Soriani & Moser, which offered a long and joyful ride.

Back to the Back Stage

With Back to the Back Stage you will find a rather unusual monorail where you can take a look behind the scenes of the amusement park. For this reason you should only visit the ride after visiting all the main attractions. The monorail stops at several stations with some displays, where Doc Brown gives some insights into the individual attractions in short movies, before he is shocked by the catastrophes of Magma 2.1 and wants to travel back into the future. As a result – at least from the story’s point of view – at the end of the ride, we actually travelled one day into the future.

Kitt Super Jet

From the monorail you get a good insight into the wild action of the Kitt Super Jet boat drivers. Inspired by the still popular series Knight Rider (Supercar in Italian), the Foundation for Law and Constitution has commissioned a manhunt. However, not in Kitt, as that would be a catastrophe in terms of capacity, but in Super Jet, the equivalent on water.

After Michael Knight has personally prepared us for the mission in perfect Italian, the boat is lowered and leaves its harbour in reverse. The 600 hp engines start soon after and the boat accelerates in an incredible way. With full throttle we now turn lap by lap over the basin area of the neighbouring stunt show while avoiding some targets that have been lowered in the meantime. Occasionally the driver brakes spontaneously, turns a pirouette and accelerates at the same rate. Then, the boat disappears into a shed, which turns out to be an ambush. Under fire we leave the building shortly before it collapses and speed over the water surface once more, triggering some additional water effects. Shortly afterwards, the boat returns to its parking bay in the safe harbour of the Foundation.

Kitt Super Jet is probably the most breathtaking water attraction in Europe and definitely one of the attractions you should have experienced in your life. The integration of the series Knight Rider fits somehow perfectly, which is further underlined by the appearance of the original German superhero David Hasselhoff as a somewhat aged Michael Knight in the short pre-show. The ride offers a lot of speed, action and adrenaline and yet something for everyone. Therefore, you inevitably have to take your hat off to Movieland Park, which proved with Kitt Super Jet that Canevaworld Resort is the better choice for a successful theme park day at Lake Garda.

John Rambo Stunt Show

Shortly after 5 pm the gates to the John Rambo Stunt Show opened and the remaining guests could fill about half of the huge show arena. Shortly afterwards an old comrade of John Rambo and some visitors were captured by terrorists. John Rambo hurries to free his colleague, but is discovered quite fast. It begins an action sequence with motorcycles and quads, at the end of which Rambo has to take a good beating. In the meantime his comrade has freed himself and together they establish some order. A female soldier working undercover joins him, only to be caught in an ambush shortly afterwards. Meanwhile the hostages (the captured visitors) are brought to the main stage and can experience the spectacle up close. As the only person not captured, Rambo tries to free everyone in a one-man army sequence. He first frees his colleague and opens the escape routes, whereupon an action-packed show on the water takes place, in which also the remaining visitors gets quite wet. After most of the enemy forces have been defeated and the hostages have been brought to the front stage by motorboat, there is a little love story between Rambo and the soldier, who is fatally wounded by the only remaining adversary. Rambo then pulls out his bow, fires an arrow at the oil barrels on the opposite side and triggers an explosion that sets the enemy on fire.

Even though the story is a bit lengthy at times, the John Rambo Stunt Show is a show absolutely worth seeing. The show is fortunately does not use any slapstick, like its boring car stunt show counterparts often found in amusement parks around the world. Beside the well choreographed fighting performances there are also some surprises, which are well staged. The big cast does its job very well, which is why you shouldn’t miss out on the show.

Magma 2.1

Another highlight follows with Magma 2.1, a ride similar to the Studio Tram Tour from the Walt Disney Studios Park near Paris, only with spectacular special effects, motivated drivers and lots of action.

After the car has left the station, a short turn follows at the rear end of the Hollywood Action Tower, then the truck mercilessly plunges down a steep embankment, lifting the passengers neatly out of their seats. Passing the back of the stunt show, we now enter an obstacle course with several delightful mechanical gimmicks. First, we cross a small water basin above which a tanker truck empties itself, which in theory can be very wet. After that, we cross an oversized seesaw and in the next moment we are dried a little by cold air blowers. With a decent speed we drive around a small building, into which we enter shortly afterwards. Inside there is a small laboratory, which is now destroyed due to some earthquakes. The truck is shaken and there are some fire and light effects. A siren sounds and we leave the building as soon as possible. Outside it is burning everywhere and the landscape is mostly destroyed, to all misfortune the road breaks under us and we land quite surprisingly in water. By forced measures, we drive through another water basin where there is a water effect directed at the passengers. Likewise, the truck drives a little in reverse until it can drive up the embankment in another attempt. Once again at full throttle we pass the same road along the stunt show as at the beginning of the ride and arrive shortly after at the station, where the driver is usually bid farewell with some applause.

Magma 2.1 is a genuinely funny and effect overloaded attraction that unfortunately cannot be found elsewhere in Europe, even though in the English Chessington World of Adventure on Zufari you can at least guess the potential behind such an attraction. The drivers on Magma are merciless and the built-in mechanical effects are totally amazing, which is why you have to get a ride or two when you are at Movieland Park.

Hollywood Action Tower

You should also get a ride on the Hollywood Action Tower, a first generation free fall from Intamin. It was built in the 80s, before you could establish space-saving free fall towers with magnetic brake systems in amusement parks in the mid 90s. Before the system moved to Movieland Park in 2006, it stood until 2001 as Drop of Doom in the Galaxyland Amusement Park of the Canadian West Edmonton Mall, before it was replaced by a double shot of about the same height made by S&S.

After taking a seat in the car and closing the over-the-shoulder harness, the car sets itself in motion and first moves a few meters backwards into the elevator shaft. The nacelle couples into the shaft at the back and is immediately transported up the tower. When it reaches the top, the car is pushed forward a little to the sound of the Twilight Zone soundtrack and couples into the free fall shaft. Under a fog effect the letters of the Hollywood Tower logo break in and we fall into the depth. The first meters of it we approach the ground in a straight line, but then the falling distance bends in a quarter circle, consequently we find ourselves lying on our backs rather fast and continue to move before the mechanical brakes stops us noticeably. A dog grabs us and transports us over a turnout one level down, where we return to our starting position and are immediately brought to the station.

The Hollywood Action Tower is the only one of its kind in Europe and one of the few remaining rides of its kind in the world. For this reason alone, the trip to Movieland Park is worthwhile. The freefall experience is just an awesome experience – althrough, also a wacky one as well, which is why we joined the queue quite often.

Police Academy

As you could expect by the Police Academy, which has its own simulators for the driver training of the new recruits, also features a quite bizarre ride experience. The film shown here is quite good and, compared to other simulations, fortunately doesn’t use cheap computer generated animations instead of real film material.

Our driving doesn’t seem to be that great, which is why Lieutenant Harris interrupts the ride. Through a trick he is lured out of the room, whereby Mahoney and his clique take over the simulators and let us dance the duck dance first. After the return of Lieutenant Harris the original film is continued and brought to an end. All in all, this results in a really extraordinary ride that stands out from the crowd and thus offers a refreshingly different experience that you should not miss.

Diabolik Invertigo

Past the small Monza track Route 66 our way leads through the entrance portal to the forecourt of the Movieland Park, from where two bridges lead us to our next destination, the Diabolik Invertigo by Vekoma, which previously was Two-Face: The flip side at Six Flags America from 1999 – 2007. Even though the dismantling was handled rather carelessly at that time, the ride looks like new today and has been given an onboard sound and a continuous storyline by the Italian cartoonists A.M. Ricci and M. Ricci, as well as the lyricist Mario Gomboli based on the original comic Diabolik by the sisters Angela and Luciana Guissani.

The course of the ride is similar to that of a boomerang built by the same manufacturer; i.e. after the lift, the station is passed through, whereupon, in a Cobra Roll, you are turned upside down twice before seeing the world upside down for a third time in a simple loop, before you are taken up to the second lift, in order to experience the whole game again in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, there are some minor differences between an Invertigo and the standard Boomerang, e.g. the train is located underneath the rail and has a completely different seating arrangement, where you can even face each other, and the used technology is a bit different.

Like the Tornado of the former Danish theme park Sommerland Syd – now Triops in the French theme park Bagatelle – the ride comfort of the Diabolik Invertigo is extremely good. The ride is smooth! Due to this, I enjoyed the ride very much and could have done it over and over again. Of course, the excellent comic design of the ride contributes to this and the onboard sound was also a welcome surprise.

Pictures Movieland Park

Conclusion Movieland Park

But actually the whole Movieland Park was a big surprise, as such a park is hard to find. Beside its terrific main attractions and the rather negligible flat rides, the park offers a lot of entertainment at every corner, so you can spend a whole day at the park with only a few repetitions. As soon as you leave the Movieland Park, you are permitted to walk over the red carpet, applauded by all the actors that you had the chance to see during the day. Although it’s incredibly kitschy, it’s the kitsch that finally made Movieland Park my new favorite among all European theme parks.

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Il Viaggio dei due Runner Day 3 / Movieland Park