Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

Photo TR: Divv's Italian Adventure


Recommended Posts

This park also suffers from the Italian anomaly of water rides that don't get you wet! (Except for the Splash Battle, which was just awesome!)

 

Did you miss Niagara? Cause that one is a lot wetter than the splash battle...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 49
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Lou asked me to take a photo of this tree for Jon. So Jon, here you go. Please tell Lou more about this tree. Thanks.

 

Um. Ok. Thanks Lou. It looks to be a deciduous tree, which would lose it's leaves in winter if there is a winter. It's pretty large which means it's probably fairly old. It's in an amusement park. That's pretty much all I got.

 

Disappointed!! It had amazingly beautiful very unusual leaves, though sadly (and this is not an insult to Divv's photography skills, which are rather fabulous) they did not translate as brilliantly to film as I might've liked! I wanted to identify it so I could publicly praise its awesomeness.

 

Cheers for all this Divv, brilliant report so far and tons of great photos for me to steal! I look FRIGHTENING in the flume photo, far too happy. The photo of Steve/Derek/Cameron/Larry on Katun is brilliant, and the one of me and Scottish being pregnant came out much better than expected! How the eff did Scottish hit his head on those rocks and Russ didn't?! I'm not sure if you realise this but Russ is tall...

 

Can't wait for part 3!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great stuff so far, Divv, looking forward to Studios.

 

image010_5.jpg

 

Is it just me, or does the baby appear to be breast feeding from Lou via straw? If Scottish was a little bit closer to the sign it couldn't looked like he was feeding the baby like a bird would

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How the eff did Scottish hit his head on those rocks and Russ didn't?! I'm not sure if you realise this but Russ is tall...

 

I believe I was checking my phone was in my pocket then BANG! Have you guys not realised I'm special???

 

Another great update Divv! I knew nothing about this place (except Katun) and was really surprised. Great park.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great photo's again Divv.

 

Katun was really something and defiantly the best suspended B&M I've been on, except for Nemesis.

 

And selling beer for the same price as Coke makes the park even better in my books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hahahaha, that is hilarious, Derek. I didn't even realize that.

 

You made a comment about not having real good iSpeed pictures, though. After thinking about it, there really wasn't a great area to take pictures of the ride. Most of it was either behind a tall fence or blocked by buildings. Maybe someone on the trip rode the monorail?

 

Great report so far, definitely looking forward to the rest!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART THREE:

MOVIELAND STUDIOS

 

Now this park I really didn't know much about at all. For some reason I expected some really ghetto place with not much to do. How wrong I was! This place was fantastic!

 

Granted, some of the rides are knockoffs and I don't think the park has licenses for any of the IPs that they use but this place has really done a great job! The park looks really good and most of the rides have a unique Italian twist to them!

 

The park's small size is quite deceiving - there's so much do here. In our time in the park our group left without even thinking about checking out the water park because there were so many things in the main park that we wanted to do!

 

I just hope that no major movie studio tries to come down on this place because I get the feeling it could disappear really fast if that happened.

 

This was a fantastic way to end my jaunt to Italy. I knew the company would be good, I just didn't expect the park to be as good as it was! The park certainly had a lot of character. A great place to spend my 26th birthday!

image001.jpg.d56c07036775d4e7095ca5fdcd66ef4a.jpg

The final park in Italy – Movieland Studios!

image002.jpg.cf7a94250e3a3be9a6a14b0f5bb02985.jpg

I really didn’t know much about this place at all beforehand. But I really expected some small ghetto place for some reason. That couldn’t be further from the truth! This park was awesome!!!

image003.jpg.cb122062890fc134a89ad6c4548b3e94.jpg

Welcome to Italian Police Academy. I admit I haven’t seen any of the movies so I don’t know for sure but it looks like the park just got a load of Italian actors to take the place of the ones from the movies and threw together their own simulator!

image004.jpg.6de28c1623de040970da51b504e27524.jpg

This father and son combo can’t wait to experience the latest in simulator technology!

image005.jpg.ae31b6516b547d1bf292d2fad32c8fdb.jpg

This ride knows its limits. It simulates being a simulator!

image006.jpg.875e2d3aeab2cdca5adbb345b46f02b2.jpg

The ride itself is basically one square room with two rows of cars back to back and two big screens. Nothing fancy about this!

image007.jpg.e6134705368b913a8b26fd111b24dece.jpg

We didn’t have time to do Terminator 5D. I’m holding out for 7D.

image008.jpg.b9d1aa14366677a16d4143fc01e90f94.jpg

But hey, Terminator 5D does have FOUNTAINS!!!

image009.jpg.b9f4ab25366848bffd8f5b343ff6c425.jpg

ITALY HOT.

image010.thumb.jpg.786f36a2e6dc4ec6365cb0fab2bbdd98.jpg

Movieland Studios instantly became awesome to me at this moment.

image011.jpg.791038599ac395ad3f388c94490f1ffc.jpg

Do you ever find yourself wondering "What ever becomes of Larry's sleeves?"

 

Well now you know.

image012.jpg.59797985aeba1a5e6a4859b19aaeaec1.jpg

CAUTION: OVERLORD AT WORK.

image013.jpg.90831da2edfa07dc561da71a876bc5da.jpg

Yes, that is a shag-pile carpet affixed to each car on the OCK-TO-POOOSSS!

image014.jpg.7f4a0e0dab976207fc0594f1e78150ae.jpg

"I have tiny useless arms AND a horrible, horrible rash on my stomach!"

image015.jpg.cb58a61fa51a3273d7340ed545c0d3b7.jpg

I think this one car and furry constituted the park’s opening parade. Brilliant!

image016.jpg.2bbc9e45a554110ea7dc262bce499ce0.jpg

Hey, its Morgan, Melissa and Christine! Enjoying Troncosaurus?

image017.jpg.6a7a9cdc5cd98e258220094b4f6242c8.jpg

Brad’s doing his best to keep dad dry on Troncosaurus.

image018.thumb.jpg.fc916c1cdf78342de18eaaaaf1290982.jpg

Like every other log flume in Italy, Troncosaurus keeps you fairly dry. If only the same could be said for other rides at Movieland Studios!

image019.jpg.31df36bbd2ada4e93a87c3b0a6eaee7d.jpg

Thie Italians are apparently very trusting people. This is where people leave their bags when they go to ride the log flume!

image020.jpg.4df2c25b45b3c79fb0352bffc36341a6.jpg

The bat-signal makes any theme park show better.

image021.jpg.7463abfa7799f26e91a8cd139e0dd02c.jpg

The Horror House was one amazing haunted walkthrough! Probably one of the longest mazes I’ve ever done too – it seemed neverending!

image024.thumb.jpg.7a7d2e697393b4f4033d0f1b102e01e9.jpg

Time for a piece of Divvia!

 

Movieland Studios bought this Intamin First Gen Drop Tower from Loudoun Castle in Scotland! The ride never made it to Scotland but I’m led to believe that Loudoun Castle did buy it and sell it on when they were denied planning permission.

 

Though I’m sure if it did end up in Scotland it wouldn’t have been called “Hollywood Tower” or feature the Twilight Zone theme right before the drop!

image023.jpg.9c5defac541d37cc719414272d8ce87b.jpg

Yup, this park blatantly rips off anything and doesn’t care! I love it!

image025.jpg.1e40f733ecbf529e13807f4f94bd156e.jpg

Magma 2 is the park’s “Backstage Tour”…

image026.jpg.cab85d29cacdc5cef56dd6ee8af8cfc1.jpg

It might not look much in the photo but these vehicles absolutely bomb it down these narrow roads! It’s pretty scary!

image029.jpg.22b7199ac6e044dbabce73f3e5d1a822.jpg

The backstage tour also takes you on a quick look at the lightsabre factory.

image030.jpg.14e4b2810fae37793a5fe2f53babb7c2.jpg

FIRE!

image031.jpg.6fadb16653b985360ed1aae5fa7ddef0.jpg

The drivers like to freak all the riders out by having extremely close calls with approaching vehicles. I don’t think you’d see anything like this in the UK!

image032.thumb.jpg.e231c561edc727b2ef13a1bfbea86c9d.jpg

How the hell did I survive this ride?!

image033.jpg.eb618bc8fb1267cbc64b18d1778fff6a.jpg

The Dukes of Hazzard restaurant serves you fast food pizza. Just like in the TV show!

image034.jpg.1f6bc850a00e72c1313d63c6d389c1ee.jpg

Yup, I had pizza in Italy. How cultural of me! Though this one really just tasted like any theme park pizza!

image035.jpg.7b580fe81dbdf9d8bec0a6028d091a14.jpg

So I was reading the park map and saw “U-571 – Submarine Simulator”, I wondered to myself “how the hell would that even work?!”

 

Let me try and expain...

image036.jpg.dbf3df74715e75e22b71cecbb8fb98dc.jpg

Well, first of all you get sent into this hangar type thing where water starts firing from below, I’m guessing we’re getting bombed or something!

image037.jpg.9fbf744521659ab8a76f3b649d60fbb4.jpg

Then some dude starts shouting at us all to get into the submarine as fast as you can!

image038.jpg.07c828848f3a6aefc6aca447b0af4e55.jpg

We get in the submarine, and don’t these two look a bit nervous? Well they had no need to be!

image039.jpg.9c9c617fcc888e63d98a9faa455f3023.jpg

Renee and I on the other hand got near enough drowned! I have never got more wet on any ride in my life! I basically had a hose pointed at me for three minutes. Good thing we’re in Italy, where it’s hotter than the sun!

image040.jpg.35f4a77742929058a54dc53ebb4845d0.jpg

So it might be gone from Universal, but Back to the Future lives on as a ride in Italy!

image041.jpg.6baa4def9bfb3b740451a71383ea0162.jpg

Any park that shows clips from Back to the Future in the line gets the Divv stamp of approval!

image042.thumb.jpg.10b642fc1f86fcc18cccc1cd5e63b589.jpg

Yup, that’s a monorail train themed to a Delorean!

image043.jpg.4a86d453ac6bf608135b7ac5eff43c75.jpg

Rail? Where we’re going we don’t need rail!

image044.jpg.33651f2735b948887be0a3d351d1b2a7.jpg

The monorail takes you over part of the park and when it reaches certain attractions it stops next to these scenes where this creepy Doc Brown puppet explains what you’re seeing! It’s hilarious!

image045.thumb.jpg.c5cc94d966889d9613ecde79b4da6ca8.jpg

Damn you for drowning me, U-571!!!

image047.jpg.4e47ca2dae4558874e8fe740e2ad8d79.jpg

I searched the gift shops but sadly could not find a Doc Brown puppet for purchase. I totally want one!

image048.jpg.c831d71bbea1d45b94ad4100039e6247.jpg

The monorail gives you a good overview of the backstage tour. I’m guessing that’s why they called it Back to the Backstage.

image049.jpg.3d5f2e25646bd58b6c0383cf3f5b0a92.jpg

Apparently the piston holds.

image050.jpg.8c436dfc96c94a4c3ad0f35605019a9d.jpg

I didn’t bother with the powered kiddie, but they did a nice job with it in the Dino section!

image051.jpg.c41b33feb025bdbc9971d244f08a4f7f.jpg

Sadly this Schwarzkopf goodness was not completed in time for our visit. I’ll just need to ride it when I come back to Italy for Gardaland’s new coaster. That’s if the park hasn’t been shut down by six different movie studios by then.

image052.jpg.87c8575af2ef73f19e038f8c1f27aa92.jpg

Look mum – I saw Lake Garda!

image053.jpg.479093a1aacb21e3047e840670fc30f6.jpg

This photo goes back to the backstage of a photo TR!

image054.thumb.jpg.0a73cd20e523c9303b80637afec86592.jpg

Bye bye Movieland Studios. I did not expect this place to be anywhere near as amazing as it was! I didn't even make it to the waterpark either! I could have easily spent an entire day here!

image055.jpg.8699bb5806491fd1ddf10c0853729c52.jpg

Bye bye TPR tour bus! You're all awesome. Enjoy your trip to Germany!

image056.jpg.4cffe0a01b5475e0751e31e5a8880f89.jpg

Hello Milan train station! Italy does have some really cool trains!

image057.jpg.5113b4c53eeca8a37bb8845a7049df9b.jpg

Europe rocks!

image058.jpg.5cb7afe0b4d7569a08aac816b01323e7.jpg

Yay for more Italian culture! Actually this was a very scientific experiment in which I proved to myself that Big Tasty with Bacon in Italy tastes exactly the same as Big Tasty with Bacon in the UK.

image059.jpg.f55f0bbb9b9bb81f67cc64c7d155574e.jpg

Train station culture!

image060.thumb.jpg.bfe7a18379a612eecf252a53558dce63.jpg

Here I am at the door to the beautiful Ryanair plane. Sadly this is where Divv’s Italian Adventure ends! All three of the parks in Italy I visited completely blew my expectations out of the water! I loved them all!

 

Better than the parks was the opportunity to spend time with some of the fantastic friends I’ve made through TPR over the years. I met some really amazing new people too! Thanks to everyone involved, I had an incredible tme, I’m just sorry I wasn’t able to join in the German fun!

 

If you got to this point in the TR then thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/files/image016_6.jpg

 

Thanks for the great picture! Can someone please photoshop some more hair on my head? At least there is some cleavage close by to distract from my ever growing forehead

 

Divv, you are hilarious! Reading your TR has made me wish we had more time at Moviestudios. I left soon after the kiddie coaster opened because I really was looking forward to the waterpark, (which was also reeeeeally great). I guess I'll be doing a Gardaland/Moviepark trip next summer, too. Bruno, we're coming!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Divv, this is awesome!

 

You hit it spot on about stuff in Italy. Definitely design first, function later. With the exception of some fine motor vehicles, so many things there are eye candy but but lack substance. I really felt let down by Gardaland in that respect (It is beautiful there) and would have chosen Mirabilandia, had I know it existed back in the day.

 

Thanks for letting us follow along.

 

Cheers,

J

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great TRs Divv!!

 

I too was impressed with the Italian parks (which were all new for me). Katun especially blew me away - I actually liked it even slightly better than Nemesis, which is saying a lot (that first drop was just so good...) And my compliments for being brave enough to bring a camera on U-571! (Hope it still worked after being submerged in all that water...) U-571 and the Horror House were both truly awesome. Gardaland was my favorite of the three parks - glad we had two days there - I look forward to returning in the future and riding the new coaster.

 

We missed having you along for the rest of the trip, but glad you were able to join us for a few days!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome TR Divv. Sorry to hear you got hosed on the U-571 ride. Do they just dunk the whole tube in a pool and let it fill up? My brother who used to be in the Coast Guard said that was what they used to do for the submarine evacuation simulations.

 

Getting hosed on U-571 is what made it so special...that and holding on for dear life to your loosely mounted torpedo seat as the sub tilted way passed 45 degrees.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Didn't know where to post this but there are some news about Gardaland's NEW COASTER for 2011:

http://www.gate2000.com/dem/2010/gardaland140720101606.htm

 

If you click on the hilighted word "qui" that will bring to a questionnaire that shows some artworks and details about the coaster..

 

Looks rather interesting..! It more or less translate as: 800 meters of track length, 30 meters of height, a raptor-bird theme with 90 degrees banked turns, 2 inline-twists, radent passages on scenographic elements and a sweeping turn skimming a "lake" with water effects... If that s true that could be awesome.. I only wish It was a bit longer ( I'm a spoiled bratt !!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^I think I just voted about the name of the coaster or something. I don't really know because my Italian vocabulary consists of about 4 words, "Due cappuccini, per favore!"

 

Those trains kind of look like a funky version of the B&M flyer trains. Is this B&M's take on the 4-D coaster?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^I think I just voted about the name of the coaster or something. I don't really know because my Italian vocabulary consists of about 4 words, "Due cappuccini, per favore!"

 

Those trains kind of look like a funky version of the B&M flyer trains. Is this B&M's take on the 4-D coaster?

 

Prego!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to comment! It really is appreciated!

 

Chuck, I'm pretty sure if anyone on that ride had the munchies it was the Doc Brown puppet.

 

Awesome TR Divv. Sorry to hear you got hosed on the U-571 ride. Do they just dunk the whole tube in a pool and let it fill up? My brother who used to be in the Coast Guard said that was what they used to do for the submarine evacuation simulations.

Thanks Guy! I'm not 100% but I don't think U-571 is even that advanced! To me it seemed like they had a few garden hoses fed through the walls and turned them up full blast whilst shaking the structure a bit! Definitely a "unique" experience!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/