I love Nara Dreamland

[The Angry Darren Mullins]

I recently spent a week in Japan and one of the parks I hit was Nara Dreamland. I had been to Japan before, but I skipped ND because I had heard it was bad. I am not sure what to think now as I went there recently and loved the place. I know the sky buckets ride was down and so was the monorail. they will probably never run again as the park closes in a few weeks, but there are many great things about this place. The staff was friendly and Aska is one of the best coasters I have ever ridden. The Matterhorn type ride was awesome and actioned pack. I have visited 150 parks and ridden 472 coasters. Nara Dremaland is one of my favorite parks, yet reviews are not favorable of it. After thinking about this, I remembered that what I have heard and read about the park didn't say what was bad about it. To say something is bad is not enough, someone should explain what is bad about it. Most of the rides were running when I was there. I saw nothing wrong here. The employees were nicer than in any of the American parks. It would be nice if I could get back to this wonderful park. Get there before August 31 and experience a great wooden coaster.

[SharkTums]

No one ever said Aska wasn't good, nor were the ops not friendly!

 

The rest of the park though. Pretty Meh.

 

The bobsled ride was stupid, pointless and only ran one car. The Screw Coaster, well, typical corkscrew. Wacky Worm. The junior coaster was closed for a lot of us.

 

Most other rides were carnival rides, and let's not forget the Jungle Cruise to Malaria Lake. The park as a whole when we were there looked like it hadn't been kept up at all. You mention the monorail and skyride, those have each been close for almost 5 years. The kids play area that had been left to rot into splinters and mold!

 

Yeah, so they had a good wooden roller coaster and friendly operations (what park in Japan doesn't have friendly good ops!?)

 

That was pretty much it!

[IwantRevenge]

How was the Build your own themeing attraction? Looks intense!

[The Angry Darren Mullins]

I don't kow anything about a build your own theming attraction at Nara. I know the park was a little rundown, but I think the park is no worse than any other park. The Screw Coaster isn't that thrilling, but it was revolutionary when it opened. I am happy that Nara kept it and kept it running. The Bobsled ride ran with one two car train while I was there. The ride was a walk-on. I thought it was pretty good for an Asian designed coaster that is 45 years old. I never said TPR viewed the place as being bad, but I know many other enthusiasts have spoken poorly of it. Maybe I liked it because I had low expectations of the place. All coasters were running when I was there. I loved the place. The carnival rides were a non-issue for me as many well respected parks have carnival rides. To me, Nara Dreamland is an amusement park it does what it is supposed to do. For a real treat though, go to Gayaland, near Busan in South Korea. There, weeds grow up through the park benches and on the brake run on the coaster and yes, this park is still open. I love that park too. How about a TPR trip to Korea. I could be a great help on this one as I have visited every park here known to have a coaster and I have even discovered some coasters and parks that nobody knew existed. The Eagle Fortress at Everland is the ultimate night ride in my book. There are many nice parks here.

[Corkscrewed]

Sounds like if you go to it expecting a carnival, it'll be a nice park. If you come to it expecting a theme park, then you'll be sorely disappointed.

[gisco]

I think the problem with ND is that it is seen as a rip off of Disneyland. Someone thought they could copy the original on a budget. Probably when the park was new it looked a lot like Disneyland did then. I have pictures of Disneyland from 40 years ago and it looks nothing like it does today. There has been lots of retheming. I think one of NDs problem was that they never invested in the park to update the attractions and the other was to copy the original. Sure they added a few coasters but they should have updated or replaced the others.

 

It is sad that we are losing Aska, the best wooden coaster in Japan.

 

As for the Jananese ride ops, they beat their American counter parts hands down. They were excellent in all the parks we visited in Japan. Even the old and run down ones.

[Satoshi]

i love Robb Alvey & Elissa White on the wood Aska

i don't ever give it a shot and i miss it soon tears

down coz nara dreamland get closed down

this summer 100%.

one wood goes away from japan and the rest of them

in japan would be 'round 5.

 

coaster count

i rode on one steel 13 times in a day.

i rode on one wood 10 times in a day.

i rode on one freefall 14 times in a day.