Gardaland <- Click here for coaster & Ride Photos!
Castelnuovo del Garda, Italy
Official Web Site: Gardaland English Website

Theme Park Review's MASSIVE Europe Trip Photo Update!
Day 15: Gardaland

I'd like to say that this is going to be a glowing review of Gardaland, but unfortunately that is not our experience.  To make a long story short,
basically we had some time after Mirabilandia since the park was so empty that allowed us to get to Gardaland about 6pm.  About an hour
after we entered the park, the pretty wicked scary storm hit and shut everything down.  That's totally understandable, but what wasn't acceptable
is that after the storm cleared, the park was still *packed* but yet they either weren't opening rides back up or they were taking trains OFF!

On top of that, after only being in the park for 3 hours, and having most rides closed down at this point, they would not upgrade our one day
tickets to two days so we could go back the following day.  Even after staying in their on-property resort hotel!  We were so disappointed in how
the park handled this, that we opted to skip getting the SLC and kiddie credit and go to a different park the next day instead.

The hotel was very nice.  One of the few on the trip that offered air conditioning.

The hotel was on par with a "moderate" Disney resort.

"Welcome to Gardaland, we have an SLC for your headbanging pleasure!"

Did we mention that this park was PACKED???

The theming was weird.  While it was all very nice, it was weird.

Ahh, the main draw for or visit to the park.  The S&S Screamin Squirrel built in the helix of a Vekoma ride!   Scary!  =)

The riders have that look of "meh, whatever."  There was a reason for this!

While I have been very impressed with the work S&S has been doing lately (Powder Keg, Falken, Avalanche, etc)this ride just seemed kind of lame and pointless in comparison to those.

Here's the jist of the ride....you go down a straight path, fairly slowly, until you get to the end.  Then the car flips upside down over
the edge and heads down the straight path, but this time hanging upside down.

Here's the view from the top!

The problem we had with the ride is that it was very slow, and to be quite honest, hanging upside down going in a straight line
just wasn't very interesting.

The ride was very smooth, and perhaps if this element was included on a coaster like a Wild Mouse, that would be GREAT!

Here's what a Vekoma Corkscrew looks like upside down!

After the first time you flip upside down, the other two times seemed almost pointless.

Imagine this adding that extra dimension to a traditional Wild Mouse!

Overall, it's not like it was a horrible ride, but we just got off it thinking...."Meh, whatever...." 
I'm hoping this technology is put to a different use, because it does have a lot of potential.

Click HERE for page two of Gardaland Photos

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