YEAH BOIIIIIII
If you know me well on this forum, you'll know that I have been covering a lot of updates on Dubai Parks and Resort, specifically MotionGate. So for me finally getting to visit the park was like achievement. Although the park opened in mid-December, I didn't want a repeat of Legoland, so I delayed it as much as possible (while still being in my school holiday) and I visited it today.
And all I can say about the park is "Hey, thats pretty good".
So as always with Dubai Parks and Resorts, you walk through Riverland to get to your desired park.
I can't stress enough how good Riverland looks.
Of course in order to get to MotionGate, you need to walk past the other parks. Bollywood, Legoland Waterpark and DisappointmentLand.
I'm finally here!!
Loving the oversized chair.
When you enter the park lots of the buildings are like movie items.
This was the "Main Street" of the park, they still had christmas decorations up.
When you reach the end of the street, the park splits off into the 3 zones, one of the sections is Lionsgate which is still under construction, which holds a 4D flying theatre "Panem Aerial Tour" and a Mack MegaCoaster "Capitol Bullet Train". This section is supposed to open early this year.
If you continue down however, you reach the indoor Dreamworks section, which holds another 4 areas: Shrek, How To Train Your Dragon, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda (as it doesn't have a area dedicated to Bee Movie it gets a 0/10 from me).
They had statues of various Dreamworks mascots over here.
OH HELLO THERE!
:/
Nice fountain welcoming you.
I went to the Madagascar area, which is themed to the third movie.
A cool looking kids ride here.
But the main draw to this area is the Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster "Madagascar: Mad Pursuit!"
The queue for the ride has lots of circus theming around it.
The ride vehicle. The coaster itself I am very mixed on, its a non-inverting Infinity Coaster yet its the parks fastest coaster with a powerful LIM launch. I had 6 rides on it today (and it was a very quiet day so I had 3 in 15 mins), toward the beginning of the day it was very smooth, intense, pops of airtime and just pure enjoyment. However later on in the day it was very bumpy, so much so I dubbed it "Headache: The Ride". The ride experience starts with seeing some models of the animals hiding from the villain from the third film, they say some lines and then it launches through a lit up tunnel, lots of sudden twists turns and drops in the dark follow, with near misses lighting up along the way (they seemed to be still in the rehearsal stage as not everything was working), in summery, its a fun coaster but ride at the beginning of the day to avoid a headache.
The area dedicated to How To Train Your Dragon was still being finished, so unfortunately this ment that the Mack Suspended Coaster "Dragon Gliders" was not ready.
However, I sneakily stuck my camera behind the construction wall and snapped this. I overheard one of the staff members say to someone that this area is aiming to be open by the end of next week.
This was the Shrek area, the main dark ride was still under construction. There was a nice little Rockin' Tug themed to a log, which was fun. But the theming in here was like it was ripped straight out of the movie.
Kung Fu Panda had a very impressive area, smell pods made it smell of noodles and peaches and had a neat little spinning cup ride themed to noodles. The main ride in this area is a 3D simulator "Unstoppable Awesomeness", unfortunately this here was closed all day until the last few hours when it "soft" opened, I missed it though. :/
The other area of the park is Colombia Pictures. (I could have sworn it said "Sony Pictures" originally)
Its a really nice area.
The next coaster was "Green Hornet: High Speed Chase"
Its a compact Gerstlauer Bobsled Coaster
Empty park = empty queue! From what i've heard, that car was one of the real Green Hornets used in the film.
This coaster is quite a fun family coaster, I managed to have several rides on it on the day. Its got lots of sharp turns and a nice atmosphere. Sometimes the ride was a little rough, but most of the time very smooth. Plus I really like the car.
Not sure about you but, I ain't afraid of no ghost.
The ride is themed to the original film, not the remake. I really do like the queue.
The ride itself however, is a complete let down. The projections are sub-par for the most part, the transitions between scenes are awful, the ride was still in technical rehearsal as some animatronics weren't working properly. I really think this ride could have been better if they added 3D, its just 2D screens your looking at.
Outside the ride, a show goes on where the Ghostbusters get possessed and they dance to some funky tunes. Its quite funny.
Ohhhh, whats that interesting structure?
Its Hotel Transylvania!
The ride is a trackless system with a very interesting layout, you go through various hotel rooms (with various effects not working), but due to it being trackless and a very fluid dispatch rate, it looks like you are going to are going to bump into other cars! That alone makes it fun! Even though its a little boring.
Underworld 4D was probably the best 4D cinema experience i've ever had. 9/10
The Smurf's Studio Tour was another dark ride, they had parody movie posters around the queue.
Quite a charming ride actually!
After that, I went and watched the main show at the park, "Step Up Dubai: All In!" Its a brake-dancing show and is very entertaining.
Another ride not ready yet was the parks rapids ride.
Looks nearly ready to go though.
Yup! Looks VERY nearly ready to go!
I saw an evac in progress on Green Hornet.
*Gasps* It's Zombieland: Blast Off!
Can I just say, this is probably the only movie based ride, to literally take a scene from a movie and replicate it accurately. Also Zombieland is one of my all time fave movies so this ride for me is :love:
The queue line is split in two, it starts off with a weird twisted funhouse....
And ends in an employee area.
I was hoping this wouldn't suddenly blink.
Yeah, they do need to find more Twinkies, because I was hoping they would sell them!
For those wondering what the rules of surviving are.
Probably my favourite ride in the park, its a S&S Combo Tower. It shoots you up, bounces you around (with lots of floater airtime), then raises you to the top and drops you straight down. Pure. Adrenaline. Rush.
Me on the ride
The Smurf's Village Express was testing all day, I saw a group of park officials, who were apparently "signing it off" for tomorrow. Dammit.
After a few more rides on various attractions, it started getting dark. I managed to get a night time ride on Green Hornet and then finally ended the day with a night time ride on Zombieland.
Overall I very much enjoyed my time at MotionGate Dubai, its got a great feel to the park and although not all the rides were open, the ones that were I really liked. I can't wait to visit the park when the Lionsgate area opens and the park is complete.