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Photo TR: Superland, Israel

Israel's biggest amusement park
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Archived Photo Trip Reports of Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, and Donkeys!
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Photo TR: Superland, Israel

Postby FLIPDUDE » Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:45 am

Two days ago me and my friend Elad went to the Superland. It is Israel's largest amusement park. Now, it's not very big, and the ride selection(mostly coasters) is very small and not that amazing, and I often make fun of the low quality of the park, but when I went two days ago I learned that the coasters, depsite being a Vekoma SLC and a Pinafari Looper, actually work great and very smoothly, the log flume is very good, the landscaping is great, and I rode the Skycoaster for the first time so I like the park a bit more now.
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Driving up to the park. It is placed in the middle of a giant area of sand dunes, yet the dunes are surrounded by cities. It's a bit weird.
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The first ride of the day was Loop 2000, the park's Pinafari Looper. It was built in 1991, it looks a bit bad in this pic, but in reality it looks better. Except for that fountian in the middle of the low turn, which is full of old, dragonfly-infested water.
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It was running very well today. But that's probably because I learned on the Midwest trip that sititng in the last row of a car hurts. It is many times better than the one at Beech Bend
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However, lines were pretty long today(30 minutes is pretty long in an Israeli amusement park), so I only got to ride it twice. Plus Elad is GP so he had the "But we already rode it!" Approach. He said "Isn't it better to ride everything in the park once rather than repeating rides?" I then congratulated him on becoming a credit whore.
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Next we walked all the way across the park to ride the park's Main Attraction: The Kumba.
AKA A really smooth, fun, well landscpaed Vekoma SLC. Apparantly that's not an oxymoron.
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The park is devided into two areas. The old part of the park, which used to be the entire park, and has all the family rides, and Loop 2000, and then there's the new part, which opened at around 2000 or so that has the super-popular rides such as the Kumba. The new area is themed to some vague African/Mayan Jungle thing. The theming around the congo area is magnificent
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People always take the picture at the first half of this inversion. never the second. Why is that?
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Yay! We're there!
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The line goes under the Coaster and the heavy folliage under it.
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And through these things.

Operations were very poor. They were only running one train on both coasters. This is usually the case, but usually there are no lines. Today definately called for two train operations. Not that it wouldve mattered on the Kumba, though, seeing as each time the train would sit int he station for about 4 minutes between runs.
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We rode it twice, both times in the front row. It was great! I also started talking to a bunch of people in the line about why it actually ISN'T better to ride in the back, like most people thought, and even ended up explaining to the Ride Op things he didn't know himslef about the ride he was operating! And teaching about 10 people about what is "Airtime"(There are only one or two rides in Israel that provides airtime, sadly).
Elad was scaredd about riding int he front seat but after twice he actually said he had a "Coastergasm." Which is weird if you keep in mind he is GP and I never taught him that word.
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It was then time to head back on over to the old half of the park. Elad was getting sick so we figured it would be a good time to ride...
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...The Ferris wheel!. It was a bit annoying because they made us sit in the same gondola as two other people. Usually each group gets it's own gondola. Now, you COULD say that this is a good way of increasing ride capacity what with the logn lines and all, but the thing is, they were only loading people onto half of the wheel! Seems silly to me.
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From up there, everything looks like Rollercoaster Tycoon 4
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Who's ready for some Isometric fun?!?!
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I built it myself.
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You can see here the difference between the nicely landscaped, green park, and the sand dunes that lie just over the fence

Scroll down for more of the TR
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Postby FLIPDUDE » Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:22 pm

Part two
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The figure Eight Go-Karts. They have been closed for years. I wanted to ride them ever since I was little but they closed before I was old enough to ride them. I think you had to be like 16 to ride them but I'm not sure.
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It's too bad. It looks like alot of fun. I don't know why it closed. It has banked turns. But even if it did have to close, it's a shame that they don't put up anything in it's place. It's a very large attraction.
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Seee the sandy patch to the left of the blue and yellow dome? I THINK that that part used to be seperated form the rest of the park by a fence, and that was the park's "junkyard". But now there's nothing there, if I remember correctly. I hope this means there's a new ride planned!
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If you put together the sandy area and the grassy area there's enough space for a proper rollercoaster! Oh I wish! I would LOVE to have a proper rollercoaster in Israel! I mean, sure, our SLC and pinafari are good, but theyre still an SLC and a Pinafari. Would be nice to not have to buy a $1000 plane ticket every time I want to ride something ebtter than an SLC.
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I love that Loop 2000 is right by the Ferris Wheel. Makes for some pretty awesome views. Oh, and I forgot to mention, on my way to the park I saw the most interesting view... An enormous, crowded cemetary, and in the distance, the silouhette of the skycoaster and ferris wheel. I wish I would've gotten a picture of it. It was very symbolic of many things. Life in Israel would be one of which.
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Rishon Letzion and the dunes from the ferris wheel. Behind the rocket ride you can see where the ride graveyard is now. You can also see a large fenced off area next to the park. A friend of mine that lives in Rishon Letzion says he knows for a fact that theyre building a road there, but since that doesn't looks like a logical place or shape for a road's construction site, I can keep wishing it's a huge addition to the park. However I noticed that there isn't a gate between the park and the area, though there are gates right next to each toher.
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One of my favourite rides in the park from a weird angle. More on that later.
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This giant lake just appeared one winter next to the park about ten years ago. Not kidding.
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Next up we rode the bumper cars. They were a bit slow and they don't crash that hard but it's hard NOT to have fun in a bumper cars ride.
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The Swan Boats roam the lake that's in the middle of the old half of the park. They look very fun but you have to ride with a kid, if I'm not mistaken, and the line was huge, so I didn't get to ride them in eons. I might of been willing to kidnap a kid for some illusive kiddie credits but an overcrowded swan boat ride is just a bit over the line for me.
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The Swan Boats fromt he other side of the waterfall. The waterfall, and the fact that the park's path goes under the rock it falls from is more of why I think the park has great landscaping. If you scroll up to the first Ferris wheel pics you can see the area from afar.
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A Gaggle of Geese at the loading dock
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The park also has this ride: It's called the Grand Canyon. An interesting thing about this ride is that there's actually ANOTHER ride that goes between this ride and it's own backdrop! The minature railway passes there.
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It is a very fun ride. I used to LOVE it when I was younger, but I've ridden it so many times since that it's just "cool" for me now. The people on the ride were very friendly to my camera!
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this is one of the rides that always has cool music playing while it works. I heard a song I like for the first time on this ride. For those of you who don't know how this sort of ride works: It's a long gondola connected to two arms, much like a top spin, only you sit facing sideways, and both arms swing independantly. Unlike the flipping version of the ride, here the gondola swings freely. It's alot of fun.
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I just like this shot because of the Skycoaster in the background with the people waiting for the ride to go.


Part 3 later.
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Postby FLIPDUDE » Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:31 pm

Part 3
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This is the rocket ride. I have never heard of or seen another one like it anywhere in the world. Basically it's your baisc "Gondola can go up and down" carousel, but here the gondolas can also turn. But wait, there's more. The movement of the cars is controlled by an 80's arcade game shown in a screen at the front of the car! You play the "Space invaders" type game using a joystick, and the way you move the joystick also moves the car! Probably one of the earliest interactive electronic rides out there.
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In the front of the taller gondola you can see the screen on which you play the game.
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It is surprisingly scary to turn the car so much that it travels sideways or backwards.
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This is the newest ride. I never heard anything about it being added. It is the kiddie bumper cars. I was surprised to see it there becuase I was SURE that the regular bumper cars stood there before. And yet it doesn't seem like the bumper cars have even moved.
The addition of a kiddie ride is another reason why I suspect the park is about to expand. I hope I am right.
I also found it funny that the kiddie bumper cars actually go faster and crash harder than the adult version!
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It is placed right next to Loop 2000, so we went and rode it again.
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When I was little, Loop 2000 and the Pinafari Zyklon at another amsuement park were the only coasters in Israel. Riders must be 12 years old to ride Loop 2000, and 8 year old to ride the other one(Well, younger if accompanied by an audlt but I didnt learn that untill I was 8). So many many times I stood by that face and gazed up at the loop, waiting untill I was finally old enough to ride it. But when I was 9 I went on the trip to america and so my first looping rollercoaster was Revolution at SFMM. Which is funny if you consider it is much bigger, and yet I had to wiat untill my 12th birthday before I could ride Loop 2000.
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As we continue our clockwise trip around the park we pass under the artificial waterfall rock
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And end up at Terror Falls: The Park's log flume.
From my experience it is one of the better log flumes out there. Not layout-wise, but it's smoother than ones I've ridden in america, seeing how in america the boats constantly bump up against the side of the track, and in Terror Falls they hardly even touch it.
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Always fun to rock the log boat.
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The ride has two drops. The first one, show here is small, but steep. It gets you absolutely and completely SOAKED.
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Then the boat turns and climbs up the tall lift hill... (Note the arab woman in full body covers in the front row)
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and down the big, not so steep hill.
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Which... Surprisingly enough, hardly gets you wet at all.
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While taking pics for the ride these two girls started posing and climbing all over each other for the camera.
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Workin' it for the camera
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After they got off the ride they hunted us down and asked for Elad's ICQ number so we can send them their pictures. Personally I was surprised that they didn't ask us to delete them on the spot.
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The first lift
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That's odd. I don't think I ever noticed that Tiki hut in the middle of the ride before! I wonder if that's another addition to the park? Or maybe I was so busy belitteling this park that this is another one of the cool things I missed
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I claimed this pic looked a bit like "Nymphs on a log flume". Elad just raised an eyebrow at me and said "Riiiiiiight..."
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Some ethnic music started playing so the kids in th eboat started clapping their hands and the one at the front just stood up and started dancing. The ride op immediatly blared across the speakers for him to sit down.

Part 4 coming up soon
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Postby RIP Psyclone » Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:33 pm

Wow, that's some great stuff, Tomi! Thank you so much for sharing. Silly question, but I was wondering what language you use to speak to your friend(s), to talk to the ride op., etc. How do you say 'airtime' in Hebrew? Hehe.
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Postby FLIPDUDE » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:30 pm

We speak hebrew here. It's the dominant language in Israel.
(Though because I speak english fluently very often I'd slip into saying stuff in english because it's jsut easier for me to say what I want that way. Happens to alot of people here because most of everything on the TV and the computer is in english)

In hebrew Airtime is "Zman Avir". Zman meaning Time, Avir meaning Air. However that word is usually used to describe time which you speak on your cellphone if I'm not mistaken.
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Postby Guardian21 » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:31 pm

park looks like a lot more thought was put into its planning then people think back in Saudi. hopin' that'll change with the parks coming soon to Dubai.
hoping that the Dubai parks will cause a shift in the amusement industry across the middle east.
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Postby FLIPDUDE » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:50 pm

^If Dubailand ends up being HALF what the model shows, it definately will. not to mention there's sitll 5 or so other parks planned for dubai that aren't part of Dubailand.
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Postby digidude18 » Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:31 pm

That's a pretty nice little park, even the old section looks like a nice way to spend a day or afternoon. I'll be interested to see the rest of the park.
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Postby window » Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:33 pm

FLIPDUDE wrote:bah. TPR went down in the middle of my uploading pictures. part 2 will be delayed a bit X_X


That happened to me when I was doing my BGA update! Very annoying :cry:

Great update though! Love to see foreign parks I'll probably never visit.
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Postby Marcio » Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:32 pm

Great update! It's a nice park... The landscape is awesome!

The land around it really reminds me those kind of parks that we'll see in Dubai...

You said Kumba is "a really smooth, fun, well landscaped Vekoma SLC..." Are your sure? A smooth Vekoma? Woah! :)
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