-
Posts
5,394 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by Groteslurf
-
What Was The Last Coaster You Rode?
Groteslurf replied to SharkTums's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Goliath in Walibi World again (last Saturday) -
i'm looking forward to our usa trip which we have planned for June next year. We are going to visit : geauga lake, cedar point, pki, hershey, kennywood, dorney, sfga (possibly also knoebels). In europe will visit most likely following parks again : phantasialand (black mamba), efteling (vliegende hollander), bobbejaanland, walibi belgium + world, Dlp + wds, plopsaland (new mack supersplash + skyflyer), moviepark germany, ....
-
How many coasters have you been on?
Groteslurf replied to Coasters 4 ever's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
See my cf signature. Next year June, we have a usa coastertrip planned and then will be at +250 -
What Was The Last Coaster You Rode?
Groteslurf replied to SharkTums's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
last friday i rode Silverstar (europapark) 6 times. -
Dubailand, new themepark, Aqua Dunya
Groteslurf replied to dubaidave's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Since i first heard about dubailand, i knew this will be a place where i will spend a holiday in a few years. Hereby some more info about the complete dubailand project, with a very nice videoclip of 24 minutes (10Mb only so quality is not that good) which gives a nice impression of what can be expected over there in a few years. source : skyscrapercity.com ****** Dubai has launched one of the biggest construction projects in the world, the $5 billion Dubailand mixed-use theme park, a Middle East answer to Disneyland. To be built on two billion square feet of land behind the Emirates Road stretching from the back of Emirates Hills down almost to The Creek, the theme park consists of 45 separate projects from a space exploration exhibition to full-size dinosaur enclosure. Phase One with the core facilities will be completed within two years, while the progress of the rest of the project depends on the willingness of the private sector to participate in this immense project. Announcing the project to the Dubai community Crown Prince General Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum sharply called on local businessmen not to keep their money in a bank account but to invest in Dubai. Dubailand includes the biggest shopping mall in the world, The Mall of Arabia, several new five-star hotels including one built in sand dunes, an indoor ski-slope, a complex of sports stadiums, and an ecological dome to grow vegetation in the heart of the desert. There will also be an equestrian centre, aviation display, modern art gallery, water amusement park, multi-cultural garden complex, the largest zoo in the Middle East, Pyramids and much more. However, the most striking thing about Dubailand will be its immense scale. This is a huge area of land and the project will be almost as large as the present built-up area of Dubai. Dubailand is designed to entertain and amuse the 15 million tourists a year Dubai intends to attract and will vastly add to the hospitality infrastructure of the emirate. This is to be nothing less than the leisure and entertainment hub of the Middle East, and a world-class tourism attraction similar to Disneyland in Florida. Once again the vision of His Highness has stunned the Dubai business community. But this project has been two years in creation and there will be a spate of announcements about local and international groups' participation in Dubailand over the next few months. For anyone who wondered what future guests staying in Dubai would do with their time, and how they would spend their money this is the answer. Dubailand is a bold vision of the modern Middle East and its own dynamic will be the key to its success. i guess they have also started some construction Dubailand will be twice the size of disneyland in florida and 100x the size of monaco. all the construction will take 10-15 years. There will be 50 hotels for the project each waith aproximately 1000 rooms. The project will cost $20 billion. Vision for Dubailand becomes clearer Since its announcement at the tail end of last year, the construction industry has been salivating over the sheer volume of potential work in the pipeline. It is well known that the project is massive, some 200 million m2 to be precise but many of the details have yet to be finalised. Construction Week reveals what has been completed, announced and what is being planned. Like many other mega projects in Dubai, Dubailand will be an amalgamation of developments undertaken by separate property developers. These separate projects are of a significant size. “We’re not selling plots of land for say a hotel, or building, we’re selling mega developments. On average each one is about 1 million m2, but some are larger, Dubai Sports City is 5 million m2,” says Salem bin Dasmal, chief executive officer, Dubailand. With a number of individual components and developers the projects will be mixed use and incorporate a range of activities and attractions. This is not to say that developers will not be given guidelines. There is a clear development plan for Dubailand, with specific zones and attractions available for developers. These include themed attractions offering various forms of entertainment, sporting venues, eco related developments as the main part of the zone as well as the construction of associated facilities such as hotels and serviced apartments. Such a large project, using an array of different developers places great pressure on the developments managers. “It is a major challenge. People have committed to develop the project to the highest standards with Dubai’s leaders. I have to look at it from a business perspective, fine they are promising to our leader, but what if they don’t keep their promises, so we structure contracts that have sufficient flexibility in addition to guidelines both from a mass-planning perspective, and from a look and feel perspective that allows that project to align itself closely what Dubailand is all about,” says bin Damsal. As with any project risks are involved. The two main areas of risk are that the project won’t attract as many visitors as initially hoped, or that it may cost more money to develop than planned. “The way we [Dubailand] can help them achieve it is to support them from a cost perspective, so we shall try and reduce the costs as much as practicable. We do not want the development to make a loss, we want it to sustain itself; so land, leases and sales will be done at a rate we feel will be very supportive of the development,” says bin Dasmal. “In some cases theme parks across the world are given away for free. I am not saying we will do that, but what we will do is to take into consideration that these projects need support and we will support them,” he adds. Although Dubailand was just announced last year, several parts of the developments are already well advanced. One of the first to be complete is Global Village, which is moving from Dubai Festival City to Dubailand and will be ready for Dubai Shopping Festival 2005. “For the 30 days of the shopping festival each year the cornerstone of Dubailand will be Global Village. The new location will allow the event to quadruple in size,” says bin Dasmal. Another component that is already well advanced is the Autodrome. Developed by Union Properties, the Formula One capable racetrack was launched on 29th March this year and will stage it first race later this year in October. The spectator stadium is currently being completed. Likewise Arabian Ranches a residential component comprising of villas developed by Emaar is also well advanced. Other components are still very much in the preliminary stages. “We have already signed a number of other contracts, so we anticipate opening some major components in the next two to three years,” says bin Dasmal. These include: An Aqua Park, backed by a Saudi investor Ali Shedri; Dubai Sunny Mountain Ski Resort backed by international developers, the 32 Group; Dubailand’s first theme park, Arabian Legends, financed by GFH. Completion for these projects is slated for any time between end-2006 and mid-2007. Also in the preliminary phase is Dubai Sports City, comprising of Olympic-standard stadiums, tracks and swimming pools. Altogether there will be four major stadiums seating about 35000 spectators capable of hosting hockey, rugby, football and cricket. A multipurpose indoor stadium is also planned. “Sports City will host its first event at the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006,” says bin Dasmal. For the long-term, “we are earmarking 2020 as when we could potentially host the Olympics,” bin Dasmal adds. A separate sporting facility is the Plantation, Polo and Equestrian Centre. This is another massive project with four full size polo fields, several paddocks for show jumping and dressage as well as a man made cross-country horse competition complete with ditches, hills and other obstacles. According to bin Dasmal these projects have been signed and there is no turning back. “In the contracts developers have agreed penalties for non-delivery. We obviously don’t want it to reach that stage, but these things can happen, so we have created conditions in the contract to allow us to apply penalties should a developer fail to meet the delivery time line. In the worst case scenario, if they are unable to deliver despite penalties then we would intervene, as we need the project to succeed at the end of the day, so we will either introduce new investors to the project or we will take over the management,” says bin Dasmal. “We want this to be a private sector development so we will only intervene in extreme cases where intervention is needed to get a project back on track and meet its delivery time. A number of components are still very much in the planning stages and have yet to be announced. The projects include: A bazaar; another theme park based on the civilisations of the world and the future; niche retail developments including the region’s first factory outlet; extreme sports facilities and Dubai’s new zoo. A development as large as Dubailand requires a great deal of infrastructure in order to make it a success. “We are comfortable that DEWA will be able to meet our needs and we are working closely with them to incorporate our requirements into their forward planning for the needs of Dubai Emirate as a whole. This does not just include potable water. Much of our requirements can be serviced through recycled water that could be produced using Dubailand’s sewerage plants,” says bin Dasmal. Transportation is another major factor. With so many visitors expected, Emirates Road and other nearby arteries will be placed under tremendous strain. At present, Emirates Road is only three lanes on either side but plans have been made to expand it to five lanes on either side. New interchanges will also be built to allow traffic to flow freely into the development will also be built along with an internal ring road connecting up the various zones. “In the master plan of the development we have completely master planned the transportation system, which means allocation for monorail, tram, bus routes taxi routes, stops etc, it is all fully integrated,” says bin Dasmal. The project will also link into the planned monorail system as Phase One will run along Emirates Road, and Phase Two runs along the Creek up to Dubailand. Announced projects - Plantation equestrian and Polo Club - Dubailand Downtown - Aqua Dubai - Arabian Legends - Dubai Sunny Mountain and Ski Dome - Dubai Global Village - Arabian Ranches - Dubai Autodrome - Emarat Sports Centre - Dubai Sports City - Dubai Heritage Vision Committed Projects - Virtual Games World - Woman’s World - Flea Market - Space Hotel - Future World - Aviation Hotel - Gardens of the World - Factory Outlets I&M Galadari Group to develop Dubailand's Dh4b Downtown By A Staff Reporter Dubai: The Downtown component of Dubailand will be developed at a cost of Dh4 billion, the promoters said. The funds have been committed by Dubai-based I&M Galadari Group, which entered an agreement with the Dubai Tourism Development Company (DTDC), which is overseeing the development, management and regulation of the Dh20 billion Dubailand project. Ilyas Galadari and Mustafa Galadari signed the agreement on behalf of I&M Galadari Group with Mohammed Al Gergawi, chairman of the Board of Dubai Development and Investment Authority. In all, 20 million square feet of prime land within Dubailand has been reserved for the Downtown, with projections of a footfall of 200,000 a day when the development becomes fully operational. The Downtown will be completed over a period of ten years and will serve as the centre point of Dubailand. "The Downtown will be the entry point and the key to Dubailand, which encompasses an area of two billion square feet and will be the largest state-of-the-art and most creative lifestyle development seen in this region if not the world," Al Gergawi said. "The iconic status of the Downtown area and the fact that it's the centre point that brings together all sections of Dubailand, necessitated the need to be extremely wise in the choice of developer. "The Downtown will be the entry point of Dubailand and one of the main greeting points for the Dubailand visitor, thus the need to have an icon that provides not only a lasting impression but also something that can generate a feeling of anticipation and excitement of things to come. I believe we have found the right partner in the I&M Galadari Group." Salem bin Dasmal, chief executive of DTDC, said: "The Downtown will comprise innovative design treatments allowing for features that blend with the openness most Downtown areas lack. This is achieved by the harmony that disperses high-density commercial spaces with water and landscaped features that allow for an urban feel." Ilyas Galadari of IMG Management Investment and Development Co. said: "We aim to be part of the future vision of Dubai, and the Downtown with the largest mall in the world, 'The Mall Of Arabia', is designed to be part of creating that future today".[/b] Projects that are part of Dubailand: Dubai Autodrome: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=97479 Dubai Sports City: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showt...315#post1871315 Dubai Zoo: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=97702 A 10 MB real player 24 minute clip http://www.dubailand.ae/video/dtdc256.rmvb A 10 MB Quicktime 1 minute clip http://www.ayuplanet.com/projects/D.../DubaiLand.mpeg -
since i've been on holiday until early September, only managed today finish reading the complete update. It was a real pleasure to look at the pictures and read yr comments (i lmao with the duck/canard stuff). At the time you were in europe, i was addicted to yr daily updates and felt really sad that you were going back to the Usa. I'd really would have enjoined joining you on yr Uk trip next year but unfortunately we will be on a usa coaster trip next year June. Hopefully you will be organising much more trips and i'm sure i will join you on one of them. Benny
-
What Was The Last Coaster You Rode?
Groteslurf replied to SharkTums's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
My last in for the moment Rock'n'roll coaster in WDS, Paris -
Famous coaster enthusiasts
Groteslurf replied to flyby208's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
i would have said the same. -
What Was The Last Coaster You Rode?
Groteslurf replied to SharkTums's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
boosterbike (toverland) -
Just was informed that the spanish soccer team Real Madrid is planning to open themeparks in the Usa and China. The Real president had fruitful talks with officials in Miami and Beijing. They want to open the first park in Beijing in 2008 when the Olympic games are being held there. ************************ although i'm a bit sceptic about whether this all will come true, but the idea alone is already good news and something to look forward to.
-
Best Theme Park You Have Ever Visited?
Groteslurf replied to Hattuchili's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
in Europe : Port aventura, Spain in the Usa : IoA, Orlando -
Goliath is definately my favourite coaster in the benelux. I really can't enough of that ride : the first drop, the airtime on the second hill, the immelman dive, the 3 bunnyhops, ...
-
Photo TR: Robb's Trip Around The World!
Groteslurf replied to robbalvey's topic in Photo Trip Report Archive
^Good morning Robb, glad to read you made it home safely. Really looking forward to yr europe updates ! Benny -
How many times the same ride in a day ?
Groteslurf replied to mingsai's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
that was the same day, we were there. We rode Goliath ten times that day. Benny -
^ thanks again Ted ! You are really very helpful. Is it correct that you don't have to wait anywhere with a qbot gold ? And with the regular qbot you have to wait as long as the other riders, but you don't have to wait in line ? I cannot find any info about this, nor about the prices for qbot on the sfga website. Can you tell me how much approx this would cost. As it probably will take another few years after next year's visit before we visit sfga again, we might consider the qbot gold if we don't have to wait anywhere and can do as much rides as possible during our visit. In Cp, i guess the fastlane is similar to disney but limited upto 2 'tickets' ? The Ace thing in Pki : do you mean that there is ert for ace members every day after closing time ??? Benny
-
^ thanks again Ted ! You are really very helpful. Is it correct that you don't have to wait anywhere with a qbot gold ? And with the regular qbot you have to wait as long as the other riders, but you don't have to wait in line ? I cannot find any info about this, nor about the prices for qbot on the sfga website. Can you tell me how much approx this would cost. As it probably will take another few years after next year's visit before we visit sfga again, we might consider the qbot gold if we don't have to wait anywhere and can do as much rides as possible during our visit. In Cp, i guess the fastlane is similar to disney but limited upto 2 'tickets' ? The Ace thing in Pki : do you mean that there is ert for ace members every day after closing time ???
-
Photo TR: Robb's Trip Around The World!
Groteslurf replied to robbalvey's topic in Photo Trip Report Archive
LMAO ! Would you plse keep in mind that i'm reading this at work (a seldom exciting office job) I was sitting here laughing out loud especially with above picture & yr comments. My colleagues must have thought that i'm really glad it's friday again Benny 'actually i am also happy it's friday' Huygen -
Thanks Ted. Really appreciate yr reply. What's Qbot (sfga) ? Knoebels would indeed be an optional park. What would be the best day to visit the Dorney park ? I guess on Friday ? We were thinking about visiting the waterpark on Saturday at opening time until early afternoon and then go back to the themepark. If we indeed have done everything on Friday already, we could go to Knoebels on Saturday afternoon, before going to Sfga. Benny
-
hello everyone, i'm planning a trip for next year June as follows : Depending on how packed the parks are mid June, we would go for following planning : arrive Cleveland on Friday 9 June Geauga lake : Saturday 10 June CP : Sunday 11 and Monday 12 June PKI : Tuesday 13 June Kennywood : Wednesday 14 June Hershey : Thursday 15 June Dorney + Waterpark : Friday 16 and Saturday 17 June SFGA : Sunday 18 June and Monday 19 June fly back fm Jfk on Monday 19 june in the evening. Does anybody know whether we can expect long or short rows ? Do (some of) these parks also have an 'express pass' similar to the express passes you can buy at the Universal parks ? If we would go for above planning, which ticket combination or season passes should we take ? Any hotels/motels near to above parks which you recommend (we don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for 1 night but we also want to avoid ending up in unclean places. We would also like to stay in places as near as possible to the parks (we'll be driving in the evening to the next park) ? Benny 'plse help' Huygen
-
thanks. It is a very interesting itenary but we will go for the 'bigger' parks since it will be our first time we visit these parks. Also found out that the surcharge for dropping of the car in Cleveland fm Jfk or vice versa, is only usd 100 so our plan now is to fly in via Cleveland and fly back fm Jfk. Depending on how packed the parks are mid June, we would go for following planning : arrive Cleveland on Friday 9 June Geauga lake : Saturday 10 June CP : Sunday 11 and Monday 12 June PKI : Tuesday 13 June Kennywood : Wednesday 14 June Hershey : Thursday 15 June Dorney + Waterpark : Friday 16 and Saturday 17 June SFGA : Sunday 18 June and Monday 19 June fly back fm Jfk on Monday 19 june in the evening. Does anybody know whether we can expect long or short rows ? Do (some of) these parks also have an 'express pass' similar to the express passes you can buy at the Universal parks ? If we would go for above planning, which ticket combination or season passes should we take ? Any hotels/motels near to above parks which you recommend ?
-
Yes plse, that would be great. Benny Huygen
-
in the meanwhile i found out that Kennywood would be an excellent bonus park on the way fm hershey to Pki. I still have to double-check , but as the distance btwn Cleveland airport and Jfk is about 469 miles, the surcharge for dropping of the car in Cleveland would still be at an acceptable surcharge. If it indeed would turn out to be very expensive to drop the car in Cleveland, I think a excellent bonus park would be SF Darien Lake. (the Superman : RoS coasters, are they exactly the same in SFDL, SFA and SFNE ?